Proposal: CAL-ANA

[FiveTacos]

Hurt for much of last year (broken ankle iirc).

Not just that. He played with the same injury early in the season that sidelined Logan Couture for a season. From interviews after the season, he tried to play through it, and it wasn't 100% until after he had to rest due to the ankle injury. The only time he was fully healthy after the ankle injury was the last 11 games, where he had 8 points.

Zegras plays best by far when he's at center. When he came back last year & the few games this year at center, his stats are at the 60 point pace that he had his first couple of years in the league. His stats when forced to be a winger are abysmal.

Guess which stats are used by people trying to convince Anaheim to sell him for, at most, pennies on the dollar...

That slow start last year, even while playing hurt, he put up most of his points when Carlsson was out and was bounced back to C. It was a perfectly valid experiment to see if he could move to wing, but from the evidence it's clear ... he's either a 60 point 2C, or a 20 point bottom 6 LW. Seems the Ducks have reached the same conclusion lately, as he's playing C while McTavish has gotten himself pushed down the lineup.

Not saying they'd never trade him (or just about anyone not named Carlsson), but they sure as hell aren't trading him for picks and a D prospect that would be buried behind more talented young dmen in their system. Why do I always see fans offering D prospects, when they must know that the Ducks are practically swimming in better ones than what they're offering?

 

[Lockin17]

It's CGY not CAL

 

[FiveTacos]

It's CGY not CAL

Yeah, for a second I thought someone was proposing a trade with the Golden Seals.

 

[Haatley]

It's fine for you to think this, but you aren't giving any reasons as to why the Ducks would make the type of deal you want. It's also worth mentioning that Zegras is 4 years younger than Kuzmenko was last season at the time of his trade, so they aren't really comparable players.

Kuzmenko had also shown he can be a 30-40 goal scorer and hit 75 points. Zegras is terrible.

 

[anezthes]

What happened to Zegras?

He's still creating plenty of scoring chances. Unfortunately, nobody can put the puck in the net, including himself.

 

[Volica]

Zegras pro to Calgary:
Adds another <24 player with draft pedigree who has had some big seasons in the NHL.
Can play him down the middle, where we have wingers who can pick up the centre role defensively (IE what Lindholm did when Monahan was his centre); thinking of Shango and Coleman specifically.
We desperately need more skill.

Zegras cons to Calgary:
Another American who'll likely force their way out of town once they can.
Cost of acquiring will be much more than OP suggested.
We're also in a rebuild/retool, and aren't in a position to start spending draft picks unless we're certain.
Zegras hasn't been a good player (regardless of coach/situation) in two years, spending major assets to hope to cash back on his ascension would be risky.

I personally would take the risk on Calgary's end, to see if there's something there and to see if he'd want to play here. I don't want to say the American thing just purely, because guys like Coleman have stated they love it here, we've had many American players stay here after they retire as Calgarians (see Conroy).

Maybe something a little better, based on the premise that Anaheim isn't wanting to sit on Zegras (which I think is probably more likely unless there's things behind the scenes we know nothing about).

Calgary:
The later of Calgary's 2 1st round picks 2025:
- Just for reference, Calgary has 3 first round picks this year. One will already be going to Montreal. So between Calgary, NJD and Florida.
Andrei Kuzmenko
- Anaheim can figure out if he sticks and can be part of the team longterm, or can flip him for more assets at the deadline. There's no question this guy is a winger though, and has shown to be offensively brilliant at times.
Jakob Pelletier
- He'll be an NHLer, but it's hard to figure out what exactly. Bottom 6 energy guy, middle 6 15/20 guy. He's been dominant in the AHL this season and is the same age as Zegras

Anaheim:
Trevor Zegras
Anything that feels we need to balance things out with.

 

[anezthes]

TO CAL: Zegras

TO ANA: Pelletier + 2nd round + Young D (solovyov) or similar or another pick for that matter depending what ANA wants. Basically take your picks of draft picks outside of Coronato, Hunter B, or Zane P. Whatever Anaheim feels is reasonable.

I don’t hate a Zegras + small add for Andersson for both teams. That’s exactly what they need.

Zegras pro to Calgary:
Adds another <24 player with draft pedigree who has had some big seasons in the NHL.
Can play him down the middle, where we have wingers who can pick up the centre role defensively (IE what Lindholm did when Monahan was his centre); thinking of Shango and Coleman specifically.
We desperately need more skill.

Zegras cons to Calgary:
Another American who'll likely force their way out of town once they can.
Cost of acquiring will be much more than OP suggested.
We're also in a rebuild/retool, and aren't in a position to start spending draft picks unless we're certain.
Zegras hasn't been a good player (regardless of coach/situation) in two years, spending major assets to hope to cash back on his ascension would be risky.

I personally would take the risk on Calgary's end, to see if there's something there and to see if he'd want to play here. I don't want to say the American thing just purely, because guys like Coleman have stated they love it here, we've had many American players stay here after they retire as Calgarians (see Conroy).

Maybe something a little better, based on the premise that Anaheim isn't wanting to sit on Zegras (which I think is probably more likely unless there's things behind the scenes we know nothing about).

Calgary:
The later of Calgary's 2 1st round picks 2025:
- Just for reference, Calgary has 3 first round picks this year. One will already be going to Montreal. So between Calgary, NJD and Florida.
Andrei Kuzmenko
- Anaheim can figure out if he sticks and can be part of the team longterm, or can flip him for more assets at the deadline. There's no question this guy is a winger though, and has shown to be offensively brilliant at times.
Jakob Pelletier
- He'll be an NHLer, but it's hard to figure out what exactly. Bottom 6 energy guy, middle 6 15/20 guy. He's been dominant in the AHL this season and is the same age as Zegras

Anaheim:
Trevor Zegras
Anything that feels we need to balance things out with.

No.

 

[WhatTheDuck]

The Ducks have zero reason or motivation to move any of their top young talents (Zegras very much included in that) for picks, prospects or any package of lesser pieces. They are at the point of their build process where it's time to actually start building, they need to turn these top young players into stars or build a package around them to acquire star talent. OP's suggestion makes absolutely no sense from Anaheim's perspective, they move one of their highest upside young players, make a bad team worse right now and don't receive anything with a great chance of ever making them better in the future. Why would they want to do that?

 

[McDonald19]

Ducks aren’t selling low on Zegras.

The whole team is struggling to score. Fire Cronin!

 

[DJJones]

Honestly, I don't remember the last time I watched the Ducks play.

Zegras checks all the boxes of the player we'd be after but no idea what hes worth.

 

[FiveTacos]

Organizationally, it's pretty clear what the Ducks DON'T need. Young D, G, or b-grade prospects in general. They're overloaded on all those. Maybe they could use a RHD prospect, but it'd have to be someone with better potential than Luneau, and those guys typically aren't getting moved.

Otherwise what they need most going forward organizationally is ... well, pretty much what they hope McTavish and Zegras will develop into (along with whoever they draft this year), which is high end depth scorers on the 2nd line.

That's why most of the Zegras proposals just don't make any sense ... teams with what the Ducks need don't need Zegras, and the teams that need Zegras don't have what the Ducks need.

 

[McJedi]

TO CAL: Zegras

TO ANA: Pelletier + 2nd round + Young D (solovyov) or similar or another pick for that matter depending what ANA wants. Basically take your picks of draft picks outside of Coronato, Hunter B, or Zane P. Whatever Anaheim feels is reasonable.

Wow is that one-sided.

Pelletier is still an AHL player at the age of 23 after being a 1st round pick in 2019. He's proven injury prone as well.

Is that supposed to be the base of the deal. A failing 1st round pick from six drafts ago... woof.

 

[Gliff]

 

[blankall]

The only way I would consider trading Zegras to Calgary is if he is in a package to bring back Andersson or Weegar. This deal does nothing for Anaheim (it would also put them below the cap floor).

As a flames fan, I agree that the Flames will have to move Andersson or Weegar to get a return like Zegras. The Flames are hopefully looking around the league for targets and hopefully choose the right one. Is Zegras the right player to target? Who knows. He has a history of being great but isn't playing like that right now.