The Minnesota Wild report cards continue and now that Ryan Hartman has received his report card, it’s time for his two wingmates starting with Mats Zuccarello . He’s Kirill Kaprizov’s right-hand man and was right behind him in points as well. He was slightly lower in the scoring department than last season, but he still produced more than most on the team.
He was very involved in the power play and his defense wasn’t bad; there’s always room to improve, but he’s more involved with the offensive side of things, especially being linemates with Kaprizov. His turnovers could be better but again, that’s the risk he takes carrying the puck as much as he does. We’ll take a closer look at his regular season stats and then move on to his postseason to determine a fair grade for his overall performance.
Zuccarello’s Strong Season
It wasn’t the best season of Zuccarello’s career but it was his second best with 22 goals and 45 assists for 67 points in 78 games played. He missed two games due to an upper-body injury earlier in the season and the other two were healthy scratches to prepare for the postseason. He managed to avoid the penalty box most of the time except for the 26 minutes that he did get caught committing infractions.
He played about 20 minutes per game and a lot of that was spent on the power play and nearly half of his points came from there as well. He had nine goals and a total of 29 points while on the man advantage, many of which were results of passing plays with Kaprizov. He didn’t spend much time on the penalty kill to show off his defensive abilities, but he did try while at even strength.
Zuccarello wasn’t afraid to be physical with 51 hits and he wasn’t hesitant to throw his body in the way of shots with 51 blocked shots. He did have an astonishing 44 giveaways; most of which happened in those passing plays talked about earlier when he and Kaprizov would get a little caught up in passing to only each other. The opposing team picked up on that quite quickly and forced mistakes, thus the high number of turnovers. However, he’s equally talented at snatching the puck back off the opponents’ sticks and had 45 takeaways.
He and Kaprizov continue to be a great pairing with their successes and their struggles, and they still find new ways to score goals. While Zuccarello had a great start in the scoring department for the playoffs, it didn’t stay.
Zuccarello’s Short Offensive Burst
Things seemed to be going great in the first game of the postseason for the Wild — everyone on their top line had at least a point, including an assist for Zuccarello. They took that game in a double overtime win and it looked like they had the advantage. In Game 2, it didn’t go so well as they lost despite him having an assist for the second game in a row.
Game 3 is where the Wild burst forward with offense including two goals for Zuccarello in what would be their second win of the postseason. He got one more assist in their Game 4 loss before his offense stopped completely at five points through the first four games. He had 15 shots on goal and his defense stayed about the same as the regular season but slightly worse.
He had four hits and just three blocked shots, which was less than a block per game, something that will definitely need improvement in the future. His giveaways didn’t improve as he had a total of six, which is an average of one per game and that should not be happening in the postseason, especially when his takeaways weren’t more than four total. Hopefully next season he’ll be able to keep his offense going through the whole postseason and not just a few games.
Zuccarello’s Grade
It’s hard to be upset with a player who amasses 67 points, especially when he’s 35 years old but plays like he’s 25. He’s still a great mentor to Kaprizov and the two of them remain the best of friends, which helps the chemistry of the team as well. It’s clear Zuccarello is a team guy, and that will reflect positively on his grade. He did well offensively throughout the whole season and, like many of his teammates, his defense can always improve. He earned an A-, mainly because he was second on the team in points and continued to produce.
As far as the postseason goes, again, it’s hard to be upset with a player who’s one of the few to find any offense in what was a very short playoff stint. However, it didn’t last and it seemed like he and his teammates hit a brick wall as did his defense. While his priorities lie on the offensive side, it’s important for players to have a two-way game, especially when it’s win or go home. So, his grade for the playoffs is a B+ because he did contribute big but couldn’t be consistent offensively and his defense disappeared.
Overall he earned a low A-/high B+ for a season grade mainly due to his ability to come up with offense when most couldn’t. However, in every player’s game, there is room to be better and that area is defense for Zuccarello. Luckily, he has at least another season to show what he can do and continue to help Kaprizov grow his game.
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