It’s a little depressing to think about how the end of the 2015-16 Philadelphia Flyers season may have played out of Michael Del Zotto didn’t injure his wrist in February.
Until that point, MDZ had been arguably the Flyers’ most important defenseman, playing significant minutes with Shayne Gostisbehere on the team’s de facto top pairing.
He led the team in ice time per game — and it wasn’t even close, really. His 23:25 minutes per game were still a full 90 seconds more than the next-closest defenseman, Mark Streit, at season’s end. And Streit’s average ice time only creeped up that high in part because MDZ missed two months of time and was replaced by committee.
But ice time is just one indicator of performance. It’s an important one since it means that Dave Hakstol clearly trusted Del Zotto more than any other defenseman on his roster, but a closer look at the numbers proves that Hakstol’s trust was well placed.
Michael Del Zotto
Background:
| Position | Defenseman |
| Age | 26 (June 4, 1990) |
| Contract Status | Signed through 2016-17 for $3.875 million per year |
2015-16 Regular Season Numbers:
| Games Played | G | A | P | TOI/G |
| 52 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 23:25 |
| Total | 5-on-5 | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| 23:25 | 19:28 | 1:25 | 2:31 |
| Corsi For % | Corsi Rel % | Goals For % | PDO |
| 51.6% | 3.4% | 39.29% | 97.62 |
Del Zotto was a positive puck possession player for the entire season up until the injury knocked him out of a February 13 game against the New Jersey Devils, and he did it despite seeing some of the toughest assignments of any Flyers defenseman — 33.6% of his shifts started in the defensive end of the ice, second-most on the team.
He also played more than two-and-a-half minutes per game on the penalty kill, third among Flyers defensemen, and played more nearly a minute-and-a-half per game on the power play. He was a key player in all situations on a team without many defensemen who can be trusted in all situations.
When he went out for the year following wrist surgery, the Flyers had to call up Andrew MacDonald from Lehigh Valley to replace him. In fairness to AMac, he was generally fine in his relief of MDZ, but the consensus is that he definitely dragged down the play of Ghost down the stretch of the regular season.
Here’s one illustration of that:
The Flyers, of course, had a strong stretch run that propelled them into the postseason unexpectedly. And, of course, they took the President’s Trophy winning Washington Capitals to six games in the first round of the playoffs, also unexpectedly. They weathered the storm just fine without MDZ.
But what might have been had Del Zotto been healthy? On a team already weak on the blue line, this was one player they really couldn’t afford to lose.
On the bright side, his recovery from wrist surgery is complete and MDZ will enter the new year looking to continue the success of his 2015-16 season. The defense could be beefed up with the addition of Ivan Provorov, should he make the team out of camp, and that might change MDZ’s role somewhat.
But just two Augusts ago, Michael Del Zotto was on his way out of the NHL, sitting as a free agent before the Flyers gave him a chance on a one-year deal.
Two years later, he’s a top-four defenseman on this team and you can definitely foresee a situation where the 26-year-old contributes on this team when they are competing for the Stanley Cup again. Quite the little story he has brewing.
Player Card (via hockeyviz.com):
