1 he's 20 years old, everyone acknowledges the defense has to improve but it's extremely rare for a 20 year old to be a high end offe since player and competent defensively.
2 the zone starts sound like damn good coaching to me, why wouldn't your best offensive forward not be starting on offense as much as possible
3 there should be zero expectation of this team even making the playoffs right now, much less doing any damage. That is a completely unrealistic thing, the team however is ahead of schedule in large part to these young players. I'm really not sure how anyone can expect more from him at this stage of his career, wanting to sign him long term is an entirely different conversation because you're trying to buy value later on
Let's address this from 3 on down b/c there's logic to it.
3. With 30% of the season under the Ducks' belt, they are 3rd in the Pacific division with 30 points (13-8-4). Anaheim ranks 6th in goals for, 3rd in PP efficiency, tied for 2nd in PP goals, and 7th in PK efficiency. They just went 2-0-1 (5 pts) without Getzlaf against the Kings, VGK, and Flames! And all three games were 1-goal differential, high scoring affairs. That means we're improving since we started the season. How in the world can you deny that isn't thinking of making the playoffs?
We should be expecting more from all of our players because it creates standards. This started last year with the benching of several players or sending them back down to the the AHL, which included Zegras. This year, coach Eakins has been shortening the bench for defensive liability youths like Zegras, Drysdale, Milano, and McTavish. Why? Because the team wants to win and establish a standard that you have to have to be defensively responsible to close out games.
2. I just looked at hockey reference's stats. Zegras has an 81.0% OZ start percentage and a 19.0% DZ start percentage. That is the definition of being sheltered. Part of that reason is because Zegras is weak at the faceoff dot with a 41.8% FO win percentage. A good coach wants to maximize a player's talent and disguise that same player's flaws.
1. Why do you want to have a lower standard for a player who is potentially supposed to be our franchise cornerstone for the future? He's 20 years old offensive dynamo, but hockey is played in all three zones, not one of the three zones. The problem with Zegras is more than competent defense. His offense borders upon recklessness where it gives opposing teams lots of scoring opportunities and because he gets so tunnel vision on proving himself on the ice, he selfishly stays on the ice too long and puts the team into a disadvantage.
Total for the season
| Ducks | 2021-22 | | | | | | |
| Overall | 4-Dec | | | | | | |
| Player | Games | Goals | Assists | Pts | Pts/game | | Plus/Minus |
| Milano | 20 | 6 | 11 | 17 | 0.85 | | +1 |
| Zegras | 23 | 6 | 13 | 19 | 0.83 | | -8 |
| Rakell | 15 | 8 | 2 | 10 | 0.67 | | -1 |
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Zegras has 19 points, but he also is a -8 on the season. That means his offense isn't really helping the team overall if he's giving away goals. Look at Rakell and Milano, their are generating points, but they also aren't giving away too many goals when they are on the ice.
| Ducks | 2021-22 | | | | | | |
| Before | MZR Line | before | Nov 22 | | | | |
| Player | Games | Goals | Assists | Pts | Pts/game | | Plus/Minus |
| Milano | 13 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0.69 | | -2 |
| Zegras | 16 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 0.63 | | -5 |
| Rakell | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0.50 | | -2 |
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Here's everyone is scoring less than the overall and all three have negative ratings, Zegras still is the worst.
| Ducks | 2021-22 | | | | | | |
| With | MZR Line | since | 22-Nov | | | | |
| Player | Games | Goals | Assists | Pts | Pts/game | | Plus/Minus |
| Milano | 7 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 1.14 | | +3 |
| Zegras | 7 | 0 | 9 | 9 | 1.29 | | -3 |
| Rakell | 7 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0.86 | | +1 |
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Once this line was put together, only Zegras has a negative Plus/Minus rating. And Zegras is generating at a very high point rate too! As a line, all three players should have positive +/- rating from their increased point productions, but that isn't the case. The team should expect Zegras to not play carelessly with the puck or staying out longer than need be.
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Now, let's look at a player who started this season as a 21-year old in C Lundestrom. He isn't an offensive dynamo like, but his defense is far superior than Zegras' defensive game. What is Lundy's plus/minus rating?
| Player | Games | Goals | Assists | Pts | Pts/game | | Plus/Minus |
| Lundestrom | 25 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 0.56 | | +8 |
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I'm not expecting Zegras to be at Lundy's defensive level, but I also don't expect Zegras to be be a sieve when he's scoring a 1.29 pts/game with the MZR line, which he is. Zegras' -2 rating against the Flames means that the Ducks could have won that game if we didn't give up goals. It negates the fact that Zegras has 2 assists in the game. The point of the game is to win. You can win by being responsible, but you can lose by being reckless. Addressing that recklessness with Zegras is important because his selfish play costs the team a point or points to establish itself as a winning program, which the Ducks are today.
But if you still think the team is a losing program, then why address the reckless play or set bars for a supposed franchise player to reach or have a coach in the first place if Zegras can do whatever he wants b/c playing responsibly isn't in his program? Hell, why have a team if the sights isn't trying to win games?
