Staff Grade: B, Reader Grade: C+
When the Senators traded for Fabian Zetterlund last season, they were looking at his production in San Jose’s top-six and were hoping he could continue his torrid scoring pace in Ottawa. Despite some strong play, he was completely snake bitten and only managed to score two goals in 26 games. Steve Staios and the management group decided to bet on his production prior to the trade, giving Zetterlund a three-year contract with an AAV of $4.275 M. Zetterlund started the season playing on the top line with Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle there was hope that he could return to his 25-goal self. Maybe he could contribute even more than that, especially playing with the top players on the team. That did not last as Brady Tkachuk suffered a hand injury three games into the season and Zetterlund continued to struggle putting pucks in the net, scoring his first goal of the season 10 games in and only contributing two assists over that same timeframe.
Under the hood, Zetterlund post respectable possession numbers, posting a CF% of 52.64, a marked improvement over his numbers in Ottawa last season of 49.40. Even when he was demoted further down the lineup, he continued to drive play towards the opposition’s goal. His isolated impact paints him as a high end third liner or a low end second liner.
Streaky scoring was the name of the game for Zetterlund this season as he had four prolonged goal droughts of nine or more games. Which was a big problem since he was brought in specifically to help the team score more. He did provide an offensive boost to the team when on the ice, despite the lack of goal scoring, although he gave everything back defensively. This amounts to Zetterlund breaking dead even in his ice time at 5 on 5.
On special teams, Zetterlund played almost exclusively on the powerplay, totaling 95 minutes on the man advantage compared to a measly 4 minutes of penalty kill time. He scored 5 of his 17 goals on the powerplay and was frequently deployed as either the net front screen when Brady Tkachuk wasn’t on the ice or as a trigger man from the slot near the faceoff circle.
One underrated aspect of Zetterlund’s game is his feistiness, he’s sometimes described as a perimeter player but he regularly gets into the corners and drives the net, taking some grief in the process. He is also well disciplined, taking only seven penalties while drawing 17, giving him one of the best penalty differentials on the team at +10.
Ultimately, Zetterlund is a solid 2nd line, 3rd line tweener who’s a streaky goal scorer, prone to some long droughts that can be frustrating to watch. At $4.275 M for two more seasons, he is overpaid for what he brings to the Senators. Although his contract isn’t crippling, Zetterlund could certainly be a cap casualty this offseason, especially if the team takes a swing on a high end goal scorer.
I like him as a player and would still keep him around but I’m fully prepared to see him traded this offseason if cap room needs to be made.