NoName
Bringer of Playoffs!
- Nov 3, 2017
- 2,839
- 1,674
Yeah, he had 36 points his rookie season after coming over from the KHL. It was a really nice surprise and why he got that huge, long-term contract. In the two years since he has scored 13 points and 14 points averaging about 21 and a half minutes of ice-time. Even as more of a stay-at-home defender (which he has indeed made strides to becoming in the NHL; he played a respectable defensive role in the series against Boston this spring for example), those numbers are worrying, especially on a high-octane offensive team like the Leafs.If you want to talk about numbers, we can talk about how Zaitsev's career high in points is 10 higher than Ceci's or how Zaitsev has more points and a higher PPG in the last 3 years, despite less ice time than Cody.
Ceci the past couple yeas has scored 19 and 26 last season in nearly 23 minutes average ice time feeding the puck to a much less talented group of forwards. Hard to see how on the offensive side Zaitsev looks like a better player moving forward then Ceci; that first season is looking more and more like an outlier unfortunately.
That said, it isn’t like either of these guys look like ideal options for a top-4 role (Zaitsev is on the edge of being a 4D imho, and I haven’t seen enough of Ceci to say for sure; and rn it seems like both fan bases just want to slag the player they traded away so they feel they “won”), but with Ceci at least the team can walk away from him at the end of the year and not continue to overpay him. With Zaitsev you are banking on him actually being able to make strides to get closer to justifying that massive, long (and NTC tagged) contract.
Of course, none of us really know who will turn out better on their new team until we see them play. Look at the Domi/Galchenyuk trade as an example where we all got it wrong. It is just the floor for the Leafs with Ceci is way higher because even if he is terrible, they can rid themselves of him in one year. With Zaitsev you are locked in for five with a NTC.
Last edited: