Back in April, winger Filip Zadina acknowledged to Ceska Televize that he’d be open to returning to North America for the upcoming season with an NHL out clause in his deal overseas. However, it appears the type of offer he was hoping for didn’t materialize. Instead, HC Davos in Switzerland announced that they’ve signed Zadina to a two-year contract extension.
The 25-year-old was the sixth-overall pick back in 2018 but struggled to live up to his draft billing. After five seasons with Detroit, Zadina surprisingly asked to be released from the final two years and $4.56MM in cash owing on his deal with the Red Wings, intent on landing a fresh start with another organization over what looked likely to be a probable assignment to the minors in 2023-24. While it was a gamble, the thought was that over time, he’d be able to recover that money.
But that didn’t exactly happen. Zadina signed a one-year, $1.1MM deal with San Jose soon after becoming a free agent in 2023 and tallied a career-best 13 goals along with 10 assists in 72 games. However, that wasn’t enough to secure a qualifying offer as he was non-tendered a little more than a year ago, making him an unrestricted free agent once again.
No guaranteed NHL offer came his way so Zadina decided to sign with Davos for last season. He was more productive with them, picking up 21 goals and 13 assists in 43 regular season games while also picking up four points in seven games for Czechia at the Worlds back in May.
But instead of getting another chance in North America, Zadina will now try to build on his performance with Davos for the next couple of years. He’ll only be 28 when this extension expires and with 262 career NHL games under his belt, that’s enough to keep him on the NHL radar if he keeps having success overseas.
I thought he was gonna fill everyone’s nets with pucks?
So did the Yzerplan…
Zadina was a Holland pick. I really thought he should have gone for Bouchard, but if he did there would have been Dylan Cozens or Zegras instead of Seider the following year.
Or Hughes?
Like many, I thought Hughes was too small. It turned out to be the bet pick!
My bad…you are totally right about that.
People love to ignore the fact that he fell to the Red Wings in that draft. It was far from a reach at the time. Unfortunately, some players just don’t pan out. Not to mention the fact that he was completely mismanaged by the red wings staff.
He was completely NOT NHL material!
Easy to say now. He was the right pick at the time. Everyone thought he was a steal at 6.