No. 11 Filip Zadina: A Point To Prove

There aren’t too many players that manage to play in the professional leagues in their age-16 season. The ones that do are usually special, and they often turn into stars when their body catches up with their extraordinary talent.

So why hasn’t Filip Zadina panned out yet?

Position: Left Wing/Right Wing
Height: 6-foot-0
Weight: 196 lbs
Age: 23
Date of Birth: November 27, 1999
Draft Year: 2018, 6th overall by the Detroit Red Wings
Shoots: Left
2023-24 Team: San Jose Sharks

On paper, Zadina looks to have most of the tools you could possibly want in a scoring winger. Gifted with a quick release, a strong frame, incredible mobility, excellent skating and smooth puck handling skills, it’s not difficult to see why Detroit drafted him with the 4th overall pick off the back of a stellar draft-year season with the Halifax Mooseheads. The problem is, of course, that none of those skills seem to have translated to the NHL.

Zadina’s first season with Detroit saw him put up a solid, if unspectacular, season in the AHL, with the young forward potting 16 goals and 35 points in 59 games. His brief taste of NHL life showed some glimpses of promise but also indicated that he had a long way to go, with just one goal and three points in nine games. This wasn’t much of a problem, though — plenty of young forwards struggle in their first post-draft season, and Zadina still continued to show signs of improvement in his COVID-curtailed sophomore campaign, with 15 points in 28 NHL games and 16 points in 21 AHL games.

Unfortunately for both him and Detroit, that was as good as it got. After the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, Zadina saw his production and play regress sharply in a struggling Detroit team, with his minutes slowly tapering off and his top-six opportunities slipping away. His last three seasons made for increasingly ugly reading, with 19 points in 49 games, 24 points in 74 games and 7 points in 30 games.

With a mixture of persistent injuries and general malaise hampering his game and his progress, Zadina requested a trade at the end of last season. But with nobody willing to give up much to take on a likely draft bust still owed $4.56M over two years, the forward requested a contract termination in order to secure a fresh start. Banking on himself, Zadina signed a one-year, $1.1M contract with the Sharks, citing the encouragement and opportunity promised by David Quinn and Mike Grier as a key reason for his decision.

Zadina’s NHL career has not been anything near what anyone would have hoped for or expected after his draft season. But unlike some other failed draft projects, there are no questions about his work rate or attitude and no indication that a lack of maturity is to blame for his stalled progress. There is likely still a quality player in there, and while his finishing has never quite kicked on at the professional level, he was still very good at generating offense last year in the limited ice-time he got.

The Sharks will be hoping that a clean bill of health, a new start and a larger set of opportunities in the top-six can revitalize his fledgling NHL career. If he can even become half of what people envisioned when he was drafted, San Jose might have found a key cog of their team for years to come.

What we like

Zadina was a classic scoring winger in juniors, and despite an underwhelming career to date, flashes of his quality occasionally still shine through. He remains quite good at driving offensive play and is an excellent skater with a powerful frame, which makes him a good complement to Tomas Hertl in a roster short on scoring options.

Areas of improvement

Zadina’s finishing has not quite translated from juniors to the professional leagues, where goalies are much bigger and far more skilled. Many Red Wings fans were frustrated with his subpar finishing and his tendency to shoot directly into the goaltender’s chest. His shooting percentages of 6.2%, 6.5% and 5.9% across the last three seasons reflect this reality and make for some ugly reading.

In statistical analysis, many fans and armchair analysts assume that most players will regress to league average, but Zadina’s consistent shooting underperformances suggest that this is far from mere bad luck. His finishing and shot selection are both extremely poor for the level he plays at, and this will have to change if he is to establish himself as a top-six staple in the NHL.

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