After completing the contract termination process with the Detroit Red Wings last week, 2018 sixth-overall pick Filip Zadina has quickly found his new home. He’s signed a one-year, $1.1MM contract with the San Jose Sharks, as announced by the team today.
The Czech winger registered just seven points in 30 NHL games in 2022-23, the first year of a three-year, $5.475MM extension he’d signed in Detroit late last summer. With a lack of any real offensive development occurring in the Motor City, Zadina requested a trade through his agent around the 2023 NHL Draft – which Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said he’d pursued to no avail.
Yzerman then made the decision to waive Zadina early last week, exposing him to every team in the league for free. With a two-year commitment and back-loaded contract, however, there were no takers, leading the two parties to cut ties entirely via mutual termination last Friday.
Zadina now lands in San Jose on an affordable, low-risk contract, helping him recoup some of the money he walked away from via his contract termination with Detroit. He was set to earn $1.83MM from Detroit this season, so it’s a pay cut of roughly $700K, but likely more due to taxes.
In the Bay Area, Zadina could garner attention in a top-six role out of training camp, potentially alongside countryman Tomas Hertl. San Jose did some ancillary work to boost their top six by acquiring Anthony Duclair from the Florida Panthers earlier this month, giving the Sharks and head coach David Quinn a lot of combinations for their top two lines. They’ll likely include some mixture of Hertl, Zadina, and Duclair, along with Logan Couture, Alexander Barabanov, and 2021 seventh-overall pick William Eklund.
During his less-than-illustrious NHL stint thus far, Zadina has played 190 games (all in Detroit) and has accumulated 28 goals, 40 assists, and 68 points. His most productive season was in 2021-22, recording 10 goals, 14 assists, and 24 points in 74 games played. Among Red Wings forwards, he ranked sixth in assists that season.
Zadina has also participated in 82 AHL games, scoring 26 goals and 26 assists for the Grand Rapids Griffins. Of note, his $1.1MM cap hit comes in just under this season’s buriable threshold of $1.125MM, so he can be assigned to the AHL without any cap penalty to the Sharks.
He’ll be a restricted free agent again next offseason, and he’ll be due a qualifying offer equal to this year’s $1.1MM salary.
That’s a roll of the dice, but the Sharks need a dub. Hopefully it pays off.
Decent gamble. Sharks got to find a way to unload some of these legacy contracts they gave out before a true rebuild can begin, though.
Nail Yakupov next?
Dang shocked Chicago didn’t give him $5mill over 1 yr.
Zadina has nothing of value to teach the yutes!
Zadina was just fired for being bad at hockey, And now he’s a top 6 forward for San Jose?
Surprised he didn’t go overseas.
I am too. But he can always go do that and still get paid in a few years. May as well give it another shot, I guess.
There goes Bordeleau’s chances of top six minutes…
Bordeleau sucked last second half of the season. Guschin was way better, and probably he is going to be impacted the most
Reading the full article and uh… Man, that’s a weak top 6. Hertl and Couture are good, but I don’t think either can carry offense on their own. This feels like a team of supporting characters with no real money star.
Now to be fair, teams have won cups with rosters like that. Just not any time I can recall in the last 30 years.
I feel Grier may have timed the teardown perfectly with Smith + a top 3 pick next year (Celebrini, Eiserman, Demidov… all of them are scary good)
Cant say perfectly when they were 2 wins from Bedard…
Should have had a fire sale at the deadline. Eaten 50% of EK65 and gotten a couple of 1sts in the 2023/24 drafts. His loss of points alone would have gotten them Bedard.
It was dumb to split hairs on paying EK65 out for 5 years when we will suck for that whole time and not need the $.
The problem with a tank is that darn lottery, and my favourite teams never seen to win it. XD
Grier continues to make rookie mistakes.
Is it possible the Sharks don’t win 10 games next year? I think it’s highly likely
Highly likely that the Sharks achieve something that has never happened in an 82 game season?
Definitely possible but not likely, and certainly not highly likely.
Inexpensive one year dice roll for a bad team. What’s not to like? Maybe something clicks for him this year, possible trade deadline piece. If not, you opt to not resign him. Not seeing why anyone would be upset with this.
Put Zadina with Svechnikov and Lindblom, Somebody has to eventually find the net.
Low risk move for SJ. Hopefully it works out for Zadina. Best of luck to him