Confirmed with Link: Zetterlund, Robins, 4th to Ottawa for 2025 2nd, Zack Ostapchuk, Noah Gregor

[coooldude]

I'm just gonna put it out there but Zetterlund was awful defensively. He just was no good when reading rim plays on the boards. Basically guaranteed to screw up a couple breakouts every game.

It's true, especially about your mentioned board reads and zone chips/exits, but somehow he didn't get penalized on it in the advanced stats.

Hockey really is a hard game to quantify well.

 

[Jargon]

Grier also mentioned he liked Victor Eklund a lot. I understand why people are concerned but Eklund and Zetterlund are apples and oranges.

Yeah, I love Zetterlund but he’s a far more replaceable player than Eklund.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[Hodge]

It's true, especially about your mentioned board reads and zone chips/exits, but somehow he didn't get penalized on it in the advanced stats.

Hockey really is a hard game to quantify well.

It does show up a bit in the advanced stats:

Eklund xGF% w/ Zetterlund - 45.1%, w/o Zetterlund - 50.5%
Granlund xGF% w/ Zetterlund - 40.6%, w/o Zetterlund - 47.3%
Celebrini xGF% w/ Zetterlund - 43.4%, w/o Zetterlund - 49.4%

Crude measure but I also think the fact that guys like Graf are getting PK reps while Zetterlund never has says something.

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

It's true, especially about your mentioned board reads and zone chips/exits, but somehow he didn't get penalized on it in the advanced stats.

Hockey really is a hard game to quantify well.

Zetterlund’s advanced stats were really bad especially defensively though. @Hodge posted a “crude” look at it which provides intuition behind why the outputs of a regression model also says he was a poor play driver.

 

[Timo Time]

Vibes are not currently immaculate, f***

 

[ChompChomp]

TDL = last chance for UFAs to sign for season and trade (signed) players to play in playoffs

So the Sharks could make trade today for a guy. Or an unsigned prospect.

Traditionally trades don't restart until after end of RS.

Yes, you're right about this, thanks, but you were incorrect about the CBA as to reacquiring players where a team has retained salary. You left that part out lol.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[TheBeard]

I’m sure this is gonna go over well here on these boards.

 

[Star Platinum]

The more I think about it, the more I understand this trade. If sharks genuinely sees Ostapchuk as that Lowry, Paul, Luostarinen type guy then great. Granted I don’t fully see it and I think Ostapchuk is more a bottom 6 character winger than long term 3C but gotta trust Grier a bit here.

Yes Zetterlund was a second liner here but on a true playoff team he should probably be your 6th best forward at best. I mean I understand not seeing Zetterlund as the future, he’s probably pretty tapped out on his value. My only thing with this trade is Grier needs to be telling the truth that this is the last deadline we truly sell, otherwise he loses all trust he’s built these last couple years.

Well, maybe sell like we did yesterday. Ferraro is still gone sometime between now and next deadline. But odds are we're gonna be adding some guys to fill holes on the roster that will be trade deadline fodder down the line. Only thing that stops you from being big-time sellers is actually being in playoff contention and that's gonna be a while.

 

[Star Platinum]

I think he needs to be invited to the next sleepover

 

[Star Platinum]

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

This is obviously fake. Nobody would be brightened up by being told they’re headed to Ottawa.

 

[Sharksfan66]

We now need another top-6 forward. We need two top-6 forwards and four top-4 defensemen.

Who has confidence Grier is going to land even half of those pieces?

UFAs aren't going to sign with us. We got lucky that Toffoli and Wennberg had reasons to choose the Sharks specifically. We'll be on the no-trade list of any established talent. So we're limited to acquiring these pieces via trade for guys who can't block trades to SJ, which means they'll be young (so either established and expensive to acquire or unproven and therefore risky) or bad. Great stuff!

I don't love this trade either but I don't think this is going to be as hard as it maybe seems.

Let's just reason from what Grier has already proved he can do. 2 good UFAs + 1 big trade in a single offseason ( I optimistically think he will do more this offseason with all his talk of building, but let's just do a repeat of last year for the sake of argument).

Spoiler: Here's what it could look like

UFA 1 - Marner*
UFA 2 - Ekblad, Gavrikov, Provorov, or Chychrun (whoever wants a big payday, I think Ekblad will be an ideal candidate for this since he's already won & has a chance to do so again this year)
TRADE for 1 of - Nemec, Dobson, Byram, etc.

Kovalenko - Celebrini - Marner
Eklund - Smith - Toffoli
Kostin - Wenberg - Graf
Goodrow - Ostapchuk - Cardwell
Delandria

Schaefer - Ekblad
Muk - Nemec
Ferraro - Liljegren
Thrun/ Vlasic/Desharnais

Don't love Kovalenko on that top line. Zetterlund would have made it so much better, I know, but just trying to put this into perspective. I don't think this is that big of a deal, as I would hope 1 of Chernyshov/Musty will take that spot eventually anyway.

* I'm anticipating the "but Marner is a much bigger get than Toffoli" response here, but as I've posted at length elsewhere, I think it's perfectly reasonable to think if he leaves Toronto, he'll come here. The phone call from Patty just writes itself... If that seems crazy, replace him with Boeser, but in that case I would shift the lineup quite a bit to keep the 70s line in tact and Smith on Wenny's wing, so I'm just going to hope Toronto poops the bed again.

Edit: gosh, that wall of text was a bit off topic, so bumped it to a spoiler for those who want to look. TLDR; I don't like this trade but I don't think it's as big a deal as we think.

 

[hockeyCEO]

You just know that Gregor is going to walk into the locker room wearing a Bedard jersey

 

[hockfan1991]

Who gives a f*** what makes Ferraro hard, he may not even be here in a year. Im concerned with the morale of my 1LW he needs a new contract. f*** grier

 

[Lebanezer]

I know the second quote is a joke, but in the first quote, he didn't specify how they're "going to put their arms around him." Is it a hug, a headlock, a choke hold? Why can't he speak clearly?

 

[Lebanezer]

Zetterlund’s advanced stats were really bad especially defensively though. @Hodge posted a “crude” look at it which provides intuition behind why the outputs of a regression model also says he was a poor play driver.

View attachment 989945

His "awareness" is very low, both offensively and defensively.

 

[hohosaregood]

Zetterlund’s advanced stats were really bad especially defensively though. @Hodge posted a “crude” look at it which provides intuition behind why the outputs of a regression model also says he was a poor play driver.

View attachment 989945

And there's the A3Z microstats that confirm my eye test. I wonder what changed in Zetterlund's game that tanked his transition game.

 

[TheBeard]

I know the second quote is a joke, but in the first quote, he didn't specify how they're "going to put their arms around him." Is it a hug, a headlock, a choke hold? Why can't he speak clearly?

I was serious when I made that quote

 

[TheBeard]

That beard dude sounds hilarious

 

[Lebanezer]

I was serious when I made that quote

Ah, the ol' two pronged approach.

 

[rekrul]

So Eklund is their top winger that has been through season 3 of historically crappy teams with a coaching staff still figuring things out. Sees his best friend get traded for an underwhelming return. Yet gets a hug and told to buck up... I'm a bigger fan of Eck today than Grier for sure.

 

[Juxtaposer]

Grier also mentioned he liked Victor Eklund a lot. I understand why people are concerned but Eklund and Zetterlund are apples and oranges.

You make a strong point. The only way to fix this is to trade up for a second top-10 pick to get William's brother.

Mike Grier redemption arc incoming.

 

[Jargon]

You make a strong point. The only way to fix this is to trade up for a second top-10 pick to get William's brother.

Mike Grier redemption arc incoming.

He frankly owes Ek. And then he can draft the 3rd and 4th Eklund brother. And 5th and 6th, I’m unclear how many there are but we must become the San Jose Eklunds.