Despite better team play of late, Fabian Zetterlund's scoring funk continues.
The Ottawa Senators erupted for seven goals in Washington in a 7-1 blasting of the Capitals on Saturday night. In doing so, 10 different Senator players registered at least one point, but none of them was named Fabian Zetterlund.
Zetterlund's dreadful start in Ottawa continues with 0 goals and 1 assist in his first nine games this season. He did rip a shot off the iron during last night's barrage, but that's how it goes when you're ice cold and your scoring confidence is shaky.
When he arrived at the deadline in early March last season, he'd just completed a very successful run in San Jose. In 2023-24, he scored 24 goals, and last season, he was on pace for roughly the same with 17 goals at the time of the deal.
Now, in his first 35 career games as a Senator, including playoffs, he has just two goals and four assists.
In the offseason, fans clung to the notion that Zetterlund just needed time to adjust to his new team, and there was precedent for that belief. When New Jersey traded him to San Jose in 2023, he finished that year with 0 goals and 3 assists in the final 22 games. But when he returned to the Bay Area with a full training camp, feeling comfortable in his surroundings, his game took off.
That hasn't happened here. Not even close. But the assumption that it will happen this season was part of why the Senators felt comfortable hooking Zetterlund up with a three-year contract worth $4.275 million (AAV) during the offseason.
But head coach Travis Green isn't using him like he's a $4 million player. He got some top-line looks early on, but things changed after the club's 1-3 start. At 13:51, Zetterlund stands 11th among forwards in average time on ice this season.
With the Senators giving the Capitals a 7-1 beatdown on Saturday, Zetterlund was given a little more ice on Saturday, getting 20 shifts and 14:28 TOI. He responded by leading all Senators with six shots in the game, along with an attempt that went off the crossbar. That's a good bump from his 9 shifts and 9:13 TOI on Thursday against the Flyers when he registered just one shot.
Truthfully, feeding Zetterlund more ice time, even if it feels unearned, remains the best long-term practice. GM Steve Staios made a sizeable commitment to the player, and while the jury is still out on whether he was right to do so, he can't just abandon what he believed just nine games into a three-year contract.
They know they have to eventually climb back onto the Zetterlund bandwagon, because he isn't going to rediscover his scoring swagger by playing limited fourth-line minutes with Lars Eller and Kurtis MacDermid.
It's easy to understand what Green is doing in the short term. After that 1-3 start, it wasn't the time to be nursing along a player who was struggling with production. They needed to play the guys who were producing in the current window.
Not to say that the Sens are out of their early rough waters just yet, but since the poor start, they've gone 3-1-1, and their place in the Atlantic looks a little calmer. If the team can now just build a little more breathing room, a little more room for error in the standings, then they can ease Zetterlund back up in the batting order and work on getting that scoring confidence going.
In the long term, that's the right thing, because even though he's being outscored and outplayed at the moment by veterans like David Perron, Perron is 11 years older than Zetterlund. Every team wants to win now, but also can't ignore its succession plan. The Sens hope Zetterlund can contribute in both columns.
Am I concerned about Zetterlund's production and whether he's worth the cap investment? Of course. But the Sens, as a team, have committed to trusting their process in games and in-season, and it seems to be working. They need to trust the process for the individuals, too.
More Sens headlines at The Hockey News Ottawa:
Cozens and Batherson Each Score Twice In Senators' 7-1 Win In Washington
Jordan Spence Reflects On Saturday's Mistake And His Team's Support
What’s Going On With Chabot and Jensen In Ottawa? The Early Numbers Aren’t Pretty
Senators Captain Brady Tkachuk Reveals Thumb Ligament Was Fully Torn
Senators Walk The Early Season Fine Line Between Disaster And Success
Tkachuk Has Successful Thumb Surgery And Will Miss 6-8 Weeks