Sheng Peng
“There’s no BS in his game right now.”
David Quinn has liked what he’s seen from Filip Zadina recently.
So much so, the San Jose Sharks bench boss is promoting Zadina back where the Czech winger started the season, next to top centerman and countryman Tomas Hertl against the Arizona Coyotes tomorrow night.
On the surface, it might look like Zadina is struggling.
Since returning from an upper-body injury on Dec. 5, Zadina has played mostly on the fourth line, averaging 10:24 a night. Because of injuries to multiple San Jose Sharks centermen, the winger has been forced to help out up the middle.
He’s got just two assists in these last seven games.
For the 2018 sixth-overall pick, that doesn’t seem impressive.
But dig beyond the stats, and you’ll see a 23-year-old who is trying to simplify his game – and succeeding.
“I just like his approach. I like his physicality. I like his direct play,” Quinn said.
Quinn noted that Zadina has been skating on the fourth line because he came back, in Long Island, to a team in the midst of a 6-2-2 run. The head coach didn’t want to shake things up much.
So it was on Zadina to impress in limited minutes – and he has.
The advanced billing on Zadina is offense, offense, offense.
But look what he’s doing on defense.
He’s been hard on the backcheck, hound dog-like in his tracking.
Zadina (18) won’t give Jeff Petry (46) an easy exit, forcing him into a waiting Mike Hoffman (68), who turns him over.
Does Zadina get away with hooking Nicolas Roy (10)? Or does he do a good job of keeping contact stick to stick? It’s close, but the important thing, the referee doesn’t blow the whistle.
Zadina gets on top of Mason Appleton (22).
Zadina doesn’t let up, finishing his backchecking route on Michael Kesselring (5).
He’s also been insistent on the forecheck.
Zadina keeps working on Paul Cotter (43), which leads to Fabian Zetterlund (20) finding Anthony Duclair (10) in the slot.
Critically, he’s also doing a better job of living to fight another day, not forcing offense that isn’t there, which has been a problem throughout his young career.
Zadina loses it high on entry, recovers, but senses Logan Cooley (92) encroaching. Earlier this season, this might have been a play where Zadina would force the action, try to stickhandle, flat-footed, through Cooley. That would probably end up as a middle-of-the-ice turnover at the blueline, a dangerous place to give it up.
Instead, Zadina plays it safe.
“He’s putting on himself a lot of pressure. He’s a competitive guy,” Hertl, who has mentored him, said. “When you try too much, you want to take another level, you want to do extra things, it makes things worse. The simple way helps.”
Don’t worry, Zadina still oozes skill, like in this coast-to-coast rush.
Zadina clearly has the ability to take advantage of what’s given to him – his problem is forcing things when they’re not there.
The likelihood is, Zadina is not skilled enough to survive in the NHL on skill alone. Six years of evidence suggest that. He needs to complement his “A” game with a “B” game that will keep him in the line-up when he’s not scoring.
So instead of being an offensive winger who doesn’t produce enough offense to be in your top-six – Zadina has a career 31 goals and 44 assists in 217 games – can he become a dogged forechecker and backchecker who brings some offensive punch?
“Those are the things we’ve been talking about with him since he got here. Sometimes, it just takes a little more time for someone to learn something. It’s not an easy thing to do to change your mindset,” Quinn said. “It takes a little time and he’s made the next step.”
Point is, Zadina doesn’t have to live up to his Draft billing to have a long, successful NHL career. He’s got the tools – excellent four-way mobility and underrated strength and occasionally breathtaking skill – to be consistently impactful at both ends of the ice.
And good defense can lead to offense…recognize this backchecking clip?
Zadina pesters Roy, in another example of how defense creates offense:
That turns Roy over again, then Zadina gets in Logan Thompson’s eyes, resulting in a Calen Addison (33) goal.
“Everybody does it, right? Forecheck, backcheck. Playing with the puck,” Zadina said. “Nothing special that I’ve been focusing on or doing differently. Pretty much the same thing I’ve been doing, just now it works.”
That may be the case, but Quinn has noticed a difference.
“He’s done a really good job,” he declared, “of the things that he’s going to need to do consistently throughout his career to be the player we all know he’s capable of being,”
So now, Quinn is hoping that elevating Zadina can provide a shot in the arm for a San Jose Sharks squad on a three-game losing streak.
“A little bit of a skid here and he’s earned this opportunity,” Quinn said. “He was playing well before that with Tommy, they’ve got a good chemistry, so he’s earned that opportunity.”
Hertl is excited to play with his protégé again: “He’s playing really well, so I’m really happy. Hopefully, he can extend it with some goals and stuff. Get a little more confidence. Because he works really hard on the ice everyday.”
“They all have a little bit of a different strength to their game,” Quinn said of Zadina’s addition to Hertl and William Eklund’s line: “Tommy’s got obviously the incredible playmaking ability and size. Eky’s got good pace to his game and elusiveness. Z can really go north-south and play with an edge. It’s got the makings of a line that can be pretty productive.”
Zadina is an RFA after this season. He’s got three goals and four assists in 27 contests, and his last goal was on Nov. 9.
Can he show the San Jose Sharks once and for all why he should be a part of their future? No better time than now.