Minnesota Wild: Expectations for Jason Zucker

After falling well short of expectations last season, Jason Zucker finds himself going into this offseason with trying to negotiate a new contract with the Minnesota Wild.  It looks like the Wild will bring him back, but what should be the expectations for his contract and performance next season?

Coming into this past season the Minnesota Wild’s Jason Zucker looked to be a star on the rise in the NHL.  The previous season he showed an excellent goal scoring touch that was good for 21 goals in 51 games.  Had an injury not kept him out of 31 games that goal total might have been 30 goals or more.  It was a season that set the expectation for more production from Zucker, and everyone around the State of Hockey looked forward to watching him lead the scoring attack for the Wild in the 2015-16 season.

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As we know now that did not exactly happen.  Zucker fell very short of expectations with only 13 goals in 71 games played.  During the Wild’s struggles in January and into mid-February Zucker was especially absent scoring only 2 goals.  With such a drop in production many wondered what was at the root of Zucker’s woes.

When John Torchetti took over the reins of the Wild in mid-February he started by challenging his players, and letting them know that if they did not give a solid two-way effort they would not play.  Zucker from the get go seemed to be in Torchetti’s doghouse and had a hard time getting out.

Michael Russo of the Star Tribune explains back on March 12th that “Torchetti is not happy with Zucker’s two-way game and the other night against Edmonton, Zucker didn’t get pucks deep, turned them over and wasn’t available for D coming out of the zone.”  Torchetti was so unhappy with Zucker that he would make him a healthy scratch for the next game against Montreal.  On top of that game, Zucker was a healthy scratch in three more games in the regular season and finished with only one more goal.

This offseason finds Zucker as a RFA and looking to sign a new deal with the Wild.  For someone with so much potential yet is coming off a very down year, should Zucker be brought back by the Minnesota Wild?  The answer is a resounding “Yes”.  With such an upside the Wild would be remiss if they did not at least see if Zucker can rebound.

Currently he is making $900,250 and will more than likely ask for a 2-year deal to get him to UFA status worth somewhere north of $1 million.  The Wild should be careful to set expectations with Zucker and negotiate a contract that gives a modest raise with the 2 term he wants.

If the Wild negotiate a contract like that, they send the message to Zucker that you will be secure till you make UFA status, while at the same time they give him incentive to increase his performance as his path to a lucrative salary.  Russo sums it up best when he says this about Zucker’s performance at the end of the season “That’ll either make an affordable re-signing or potentially trade bait.”

“He’s going to be much better than that. And we’re still talking about a guy with 31 even strength goals in two years. He’s disappointed. But that kid works. He’ll come back better.” – Wild GM Chuck Fletcher, via Star Tribune’s Michael Russo

Wild GM Chuck Fletcher still has confidence in Zucker despite the down year.  Fletcher sees Zucker as a talented player who “lost his way”.  In his end of the year press conference Fletcher, quoted by Russo, explained that he felt Zucker had better days ahead when he said “I think the bar that he set this year is going to be the lowest it’s set for his career. He’s going to be much better than that. And we’re still talking about a guy with 31 even strength goals in two years. He’s disappointed. But that kid works. He’ll come back better.”

By all accounts new head coach Bruce Boudreau will expect the same level of play of two-way play as Torchetti did, if not more.  Zucker needs to show that “work” that Fletcher is describing next season, or he’ll be benched.  Boudreau is notorious for benching underperforming players no matter who they are, after all he did bench Ovechkin when he was behind the bench in Washington for what he believed is a lack of two-way play.  Bottom line Zucker needs to improve his two-way game, so that when his scoring touch isn’t there he can be useful to the team and stay in Boudreau’s good graces.

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There is no doubt that next season will be telling for Zucker’s long term viability with the club.  The slate should be wiped clean at the beginning of the season and the team should give him minutes to prove himself.  Granted that clean slate period should only last for a small time.  There’s no doubt that Zucker has the talent to rebound from last season, so it’s really up to him if he’s going to do the things this offseason and in training camp to get back to his 2014-15 season form.  If the Wild negotiate his contract correctly it’ll cost them little to nothing to see if he can do it.