Trevor Zegras can’t assist however be himself: boisterous, charming, affable with out even actually making an attempt. When he’s displaying off his tattoos, which he feels are a good way to specific himself, he laughs when requested to elucidate the spider-web one.
“It’s simply Spider-Man,” he says self-deprecatingly.
However that isn’t the ink that stands out essentially the most. It’s the Nike statue tattoo. That’s the goddess of victory. And Zegras has achieved loads of successful in his hockey life, most notably on the 2021 World Junior Championship, the place his MVP efficiency ranked among the many biggest within the event’s historical past. However, sheesh, the tat certain does really feel unintentionally ironic proper about now. The Anaheim Geese had been speculated to be making progress in 2022-23. As an alternative, they maintain a .321 factors proportion, good for the 29th-best mark within the NHL.
And it’s too unhealthy: as a result of Zegras, for essentially the most half, is continuous his development to being one of many sport’s most scintillating and marketable abilities.
Inside lower than a 12 months of the Geese drafting him ninth general in 2019, the scouting neighborhood acquired the sense that he was a steal even that top. It wasn’t a lot the razzle dazzle of his sport, honed as a child by watching YouTube movies of Patrick Kane, that attracted the eyeballs. It was the all-around imaginative and prescient, the chic passing capacity. One scout instructed me in 2021 they believed he would “completely be a famous person on this league.” And even then, his capacity might need been underestimated. When Zegras and I spoke for the primary time in 2021, he talked loads about desirous to develop himself as a goal-scorer, too. He believed in that a part of his sport although it wasn’t marketed as a lot as a key function.
All of the items have come collectively on the NHL stage for the Geese No. 1 heart. He was the Calder Trophy runner-up in 2021-22, he has seven targets in his first 14 video games this season, and neither of these info inform the entire story. Zegras acquired scorching within the second half final season, bear in mind. From March 1 onward, he had 10 targets and 22 factors in 26 video games. That provides him a stat line of 17 targets and 34 factors in his previous 40 video games, which extrapolates to a 34-goal, 70-point tempo over an 82-game season. The awakening is going on.
And sure, in fact, it issues that Zegras doesn’t do it quietly on the ice. His expertise couldn’t be louder. He’s change into the king of the Michigan lacrosse purpose, as everyone knows, and doesn’t rule out making an attempt one thing else if it involves him.
“I don’t know: perhaps it’ll simply come to me randomly,” he stated earlier than the season started, with an earnest snigger as common. “Often that’s the way it works. Simply intuition, like if I see one thing, fast twitch, I dunno. I don’t have something deliberate, so to talk.”
Even when the extra prehistoric hockey thinkers disagree with the showtime components to Zegras’ sport, he understands it’s a type of expression. It aligns with different gamers he’s adopted throughout his ascension, such because the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews, who by no means hurts for swagger on or off the ice.
“For certain, precisely, – a man that I grew up watching, had lots of respect for,” Zegras stated. “So it’s cool to see a prime participant within the league be himself and go about his life the way in which he desires to.”
So, sure, each diehard hockey fan is aware of who Zegras is and what he’s about. There’s a purpose he graces the quilt of EA Sports activities’ NHL 23 sport alongside Sarah Nurse. However Zegras, 21, regardless of having as fan-friendly a character as anybody within the sport proper now, hasn’t damaged via to that may’t-go-to-the-movies stage of stardom. Does he get acknowledged at the least somewhat bit?
“It would sound loopy however probably not,” he stated. “In Anaheim, they love their hockey, nevertheless it’s somewhat extra chill down in California and Newport Seashore. I used to be truly at a espresso store one time and a few man got here up and gave me certainly one of these (hand gesture) ‘Go Geese!’ or one thing like that (laughs). It’s only a completely totally different vibe down right here. However all good things.”
Positive, perhaps the obscure market holds again Zegras’ model. But it surely additionally is perhaps…the standings. Followers love a star, however they actually love a star taking part in on a winner, and the Geese are the alternative of that proper now.
They’re getting completely caved in by their opponents. Per Pure Stat Trick, at 5-on-5, they permit a jaw-dropping 39.40 pictures in opposition to per 60 minutes, 5 greater than the next-worst crew. They generate 2.12 anticipated targets per 60 and by far essentially the most anticipated targets in opposition to per 60 at 3.45. The goaltending from John Gibson and Anthony Stolarz has been subpar, however no tandem has had much less assist – and extra high quality possibilities surrendered – from the crew in entrance of them. Zegras and Troy Terry have been offensive brilliant spots however even they’ve barely been capable of break even of their two-way affect. Merely put, the Geese are a catastrophe. Primarily based on play-driving metrics, they’ve been the NHL’s worst crew this 12 months, as mirrored in Scott Maxwell’s Every day Faceoff weekly energy rankings.
On one hand, the struggles are to be anticipated given the Geese are a rebuilding operation. Normal supervisor Pat Verbeek offered off Hampus Lindholm, Rickard Rakell and Josh Manson main as much as the commerce deadline final season, in any case. However Verbeek additionally signed forwards Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano and defenseman John Klingberg within the offseason. Clearly this crew felt it had potential for development, with Zegras, rookie heart Mason McTavish and blueliner Jamie Drysdale because the pillars to construct round, the franchise’s finest prospect trio since Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry and Bobby Ryan within the early 2000s.
But it surely’s simply not taking place, and Getzlaf’s retirement after final season may very well be one purpose why. The captain’s departure has left an enormous void. Getzlaf might decide the crew up in the course of a sport by closing the dressing room door throughout an intermission and “delivering certainly one of his Getzlaf speeches,” Zegras explains, and the crew merely hasn’t changed that voice throughout its management transition. The captaincy stays vacant.
Additionally factoring within the season-ending harm to Drysdale, 2022-23 is wanting like a misplaced season already in Anaheim. It may not be lengthy earlier than contending groups begin to circle the waters and ask Verbeek about pending UFAs like Klingberg, particularly after Verbeek established a willingness to go scorched-earth final season.
The Geese have younger expertise to get enthusiastic about. Ultimately they’ll get assistance on protection from prospects corresponding to Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov. However for now, this crew is a pushover, far too straightforward to play in opposition to, rating close to the underside of the NHL in hits and blocked pictures per 60 minutes. It could be some time earlier than wins begin piling up – and Zegras begins getting acknowledged on the road in Newport Seashore.
