The Philadelphia Flyers don’t exactly have too many positives going around the locker room these days, outside of perhaps the offensive excellence of Jakub Voracek. They currently sit 13th in the lackluster Eastern Conference, and their 19 points on the year have them just three ahead of the lowly Buffalo Sabres. Nonetheless, there is at least one pleasant surprise for this Flyers team, and it’s a rather unexpected one.
Not many expected much of anything from Michael Del Zotto when the Flyers signed him late in the offseason. A team desperate for help on the blue line, Del Zotto was a former top prospect who has shown some flashes of having great upside as an offensive defenseman, but has failed to live up to his billing, with both the New York Rangers and Nashville Predators.
It isn’t saying much on this Flyers team that has one of the worst defensive groups in the game, but Michael Del Zotto has represented more of a figure of consistency than many others that reside on the blue line. He’s provided some offense, though the team doesn’t get too much from the group as a whole, and has done well for himself in the possession department as well. A move that was expected to blowup in the collective faces of the Flyer front office has actually fared quite well, at least to this point.
Del Zotto’s eight points on the year, including a pair of goals and six assists, are second on the team to Mark Streit among blue liners. Again, the defensive corps doesn’t contribute much on the stat sheet as a whole, but it’s significant nonetheless. His minus-5 on the year probably isn’t indicative of how well he’s actually performed in a deeper statistical category, such as Corsi.
On the year, Del Zotto has posted a Corsi% just barely under 50. That’s not a terrible mark on an awful possession team, but it’s a few poor performances in particular that have dragged him down to that figure. Overall, he’s finished at a Corsi% of at least 50 percent in half of the games thus far this season. His last three performances, in particular, have been strong, as he’s posted a 63.64, 70.00, and 50.00, respectively (although none resulted in a Flyers win).
Michael Del Zotto has gone from a player that few teams had any faith in, to a key contributor for this Flyers team. He’s skated the bulk of the minutes from the blue line, ranking third on the team overall in total ice time, and second among d-men. He logs a tremendous amount of time at full strength, as well as on both the power play and penalty kill units. While he’s still prone to the breakdowns in his own end that he’s become known for, we’ve seen marginal improvement from Del Zotto, and while his team this year doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, he could set himself up pretty nicely for his next contract.
He won’t make big money, but it won’t be a question of whether or not he’ll be brought back this time around. At least for the Flyers, he’s a restricted free agent at year’s end.
