Filip Zadina’s brief unemployment ended when he joined the rebuilding San Jose Sharks on a one-year contract worth $1.1M on Monday.
Zadina passed on over $4.5M in owed salary over the next two seasons to leave Detroit after it became clear that he was not a priority of GM Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings.
The 23-year-old went No. 6 overall in the 2018 draft but never lived up to his potential for Detroit despite some initial promise. After racking up 8 goals and 15 points in 28 games during 2019-20, injuries and inconsistency curtailed Zadina, who has scored just 50 points in 153 games since.
The Czech forward was not content to be a bit-part player in Detroit, and in San Jose, he could walk into a more significant role on a team starved of talent.
While the Sharks still have franchise stalwarts Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl in place in their top-six forwards, Timo Meier moved to New Jersey at the deadline, and Alex Barbanov was their fourth-leading forward scorer with 15 goals and 47 points. No other Sharks’ forward had more than 33 points.
Zadina has to step up in a big way for San Jose, whose only other significant scoring addition this offseason was Anthony Duclair. It is an ideal situation for a player who took one of the biggest gambles in recent NHL history by walking away from his extant contract in the Motor City.
Sharks’ GM Mike Grier will hope that in taking a swing on Zadina, he can get a viable top-nine contributor for cheap on a team in flux.
Though Grier bolstered his stop-start rebuild with the selection of center Will Smith in the 2023 NHL Draft, he is still searching for takers on his veteran players, especially Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson.
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