New York Rangers Acquire Mika Zibanejad From Ottawa

New York Rangers Acquire Mika Zibanejad From Ottawa Senators, Strike Gold in the Process

Announced Monday, the New York Rangers have traded F Derick Brassard and a seventh-round draft pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for F Mika Zibanejad and a second-round draft pick.

Rangers GM Jeff Gorton deserves a round of applause for this deal.  Not only was he able to fleece a desperate new GM in need of change, but was actually able to convince Pierre Dorion he was getting the better end of the deal.

We knew something was brewing in the Canadian Capital when owner Eugene Melnyk went on a disturbing public rant with nearly 10 games to go in the regular season declaring no job safe within the organization.

They hired a new General Manager and Coach; the only thing left to do was shake up the player personnel.

Instead of trading Bobby Ryan or Kyle Turris, or perhaps even packaging Marc Methot in a deal for an upgrade alongside Erik Karlsson, the Sens have chosen to trade a 23-year-old budding star up the middle.

The Senators loss is the New York Rangers gain though.

On paper, the statistics would suggest that Derick Brassard is the slightly more talented player of the two right now.

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Brassard, 28, is coming off a 27 goal, 31 assists (58 points) campaign in 2015-16.  He finished with a plus/minus rating of +12, 30 penalty minutes, 182 shots, and 17:53 average time on ice/game.

He led the Rangers in total face-offs taken and had a 50.2 win percentage, 103 hits, 23 blocked shots, 56 giveaways, and 47 takeaways.  He averaged a mere 0:09 seconds/game killing penalties, but accumulated 8 powerplay goals, 22 PP points while averaging 2:41/game of ice-time on the man advantage.

Zibanejad, 23, had career-highs with 21 goals, 30 assists (51 points) in 2015-16.  He finished with a respectable plus minus rating of -2 (considering the Sens standings/goals against).  He had 18 penalty minutes, 184 shots, and averaged 17:45 of ice-time/game.

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Zibanejad also led his team in total face-offs taken, winning 50.4 percent of them, 111 hits, 43 blocked shots, 52 giveaways, and 39 takeaways.  Mika is more well-rounded on special teams, seeing 1:25 of ice-time/game shorthanded (scored two SH goals), and 2:30 ice-time/game on the man-advantage, posting two goals (11 PP points).

As you can see, the pair match up very evenly on paper with Brassard taking the slight advantage.
It seems Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion was comfortable taking that at face value, perhaps betting that Zibanejad has reached his ceiling; don’t count on that Rangers fans.

There’s still more growth and development in the 23-year-old Swede.  Unlike Brassard who reached his offensive ceiling in 2014-15 with 60 points, Mika Zibanejad is now a back-to-back 20-goal scorer and could surpass the 25-goal mark in 2016-17.  An underrated playmaker, the Swedish center has the talent to reach the 65-70 point plateau.

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His offensive talent is only half of what he brings to the table though.  Best described as a two-way center, Zibanejad’s greatest attribute might be his defensive play which is continually getting stronger.  Stick a player like this in the New York Rangers system with Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes, and you have a recipe for a potential Selke Trophy nomination once Mika fully develops.