Trevor Zegras' Elevated Attention to Detail Despite Lack of Production
Points have been elusive for Trevor Zegras this season, but he's thriving as a 200-foot player
When looking at stat lines and box scores, Trevor Zegras is off to a tough start.
So far in the 2024-25 season, the former EA NHL video game co-cover athlete has only tallied three points (an empty net goal and two assists) in 11 games.
Zegras (23) is known to the national audience as a supreme offensive talent who burst on the scene with nightly highlight reel plays, displaying some of the best hands and creativity imaginable while providing a unique bubbly personality the league had desperately craved since its inception.
Unsurprisingly, Zegras was heavily marketed, and with that came eventual loud pushback and criticism of his defensive effort and effectiveness.
The Ducks hired current head coach Greg Cronin before the 2023-24 season, and with him, he brought a new set of standards and expectations, especially when it came to defensive effort.
Though he was injured for all but 31 games in 2023-24, and the 2024-25 season is only 11 games in, Zegras' 200-foot effort and attention to detail has been eye-catching to those willing to look.
In his shortened 2023-24, Zegras was regularly translating what made him a back-to-back 60-plus point player in his first two seasons in the NHL to the defensive side of the puck. He was outsmarting opponents when engaging in battles, anticipating breakouts before disrupting and supporting pucks astutely in the defensive zone.
So far in 2024-25, he's elevated the details of his complete game even further. He's now not only forechecking cerebrally, but he's vigorously pressuring puck retrievers, angling, and foiling breakouts.
He's now initiating physical contact, establishing body position to win 50/50 pucks, and remaining diligent to his assignment in defensive zone coverage while not surrendering the inside lanes.
"One hundred percent," Zegras said when asked if his attention to detail and physical play was an area of focus this season. "I mean, I watch a lot of hockey, and I feel like if you want to be a part of a winning team, you gotta do all the small things right all the time. Something that I never was, as a centerman, (a) physical, puck on stick (player), and I think when (Cronin) was hired, (his goal) was to teach me the defensive side of the game.
"Not that it hadn't sunk in until now, but I'm learning. I'm learning the position a little bit more. We have so many young guys in here, and it's cool to learn the position and the flow of the game with everybody, so it's been good."
Through the Ducks' first eight games of the season, Cronin had Zegras playing on the wing, first alongside Mason McTavish, then Leo Carlsson, before slotting him at his natural center position between Alex Killorn and Cutter Gauthier for the team's last three matchups.
Though he performed well and accomplished what he was tasked with as a winger from a 200-foot standpoint, in the Ducks' last three games, Zegras has been able to blend his instinctual creativity with his newfound all-around diligence to become his most effective self yet through the middle of the ice, where he can operate with speed and space.
"I feel more into the game when I'm playing below the puck," Zegras said. "I like to get speed. I like to pass with both sides of my blade, so I like going through the middle with it."
Zegras' line has been the team's most defensively sound and offensively dangerous since they've been slotted together.
Though they've only generated one goal in their three games together (a three-man cycle play leading to a deft feed from Zegras to Killorn from behind the net against the Penguins), Killorn, Zegras, and Gauthier hold 68.1% of the expected goals share and 67.6% of the shots share.
With Zegras effortlessly gaining entry on a regular basis and manufacturing rush chances, Killorn winning small-area battles, and Gauthier extending plays while finding soft ice, they've created a line that has produced consistent chances in a time when their team has been bereft of offense.
"Cutter is unbelievable. He's getting some tough puck luck in these first games, but he gets like five shots a night, so they're going to start going in for him," Zegras offered when asked about his new linemates. "Killer's like the ultimate teammate and linemate. He's got so much experience, and he's so smart to talk to on the bench, and he's always in the right spots and gives me feedback and advice on what he thinks I can be doing better, which is great. So, it's a good combination of guys."
Maintaining the course and remaining detail-oriented will eventually turn to results on the scoresheet, and likely in bunches for Zegras and his line.
The prospect of deploying three lines with Carlsson, McTavish, and Zegras down the middle of the top nine for the Ducks forward group could (and should) prove deadly.
The goal for the Ducks now will be to build and layer on top of a dominant performance (visually and analytically) from Sunday evening against the Blackhawks despite coming out on the wrong side of the 4-2 result.