Del Zotto quietly meeting new challenges

Michael Del Zotto's career has been a bit of a roller coaster. He made a pretty big splash at the NHL level in his rookie season with the New York Rangers, scoring nine goals. His production dropped in his second season, and then was right back up again with 10 goals in his third season.

From that peak, Del Zotto's career track went into a deep valley. He struggled again in New York, and the Rangers shipped him to Nashville for less than glamorous return. After 25 games, Nashville — and apparently the rest of the NHL — had seen enough. 

In the summer of 2014, Del Zotto waited for NHL teams to call.  For a while, it seemed like none would. Ultimately, Kimmo Timonen's diagnosis of blood clots forced the Philadelphia Flyers into urgent action. They were able to sign Del Zotto for just $1.3 million due to lack of other suitors.

Playing in Philadelphia agreed with Del Zotto. He found some of that scoring mojo, scoring 10 goals in only 64 games last season. Flyers fans quickly became accustomed to the sight of Del Zotto pushing down the left boards and sniping one past the goalie top shelf. It showed Del Zotto can still add offense, but his two-way game still was lacking.

With the Flyers still waiting for their defensive youth movement to arrive, the Flyers re-signed Del Zotto this summer to a two-year contract at a tidy raise. At the age of 25 this season, Del Zotto is creating new facets to his game. Namely, he's trying on the role of two-way, No. 1 defenseman.

Now more than a quarter of the way into the season, his stat line of one goal, seven points and -8 rating isn't bowling everyone over. Go one layer deeper into possession statistics, however, and a different picture emerges.

By a possession metric, Del Zotto is having the best season of his career. When on the ice, his team is generating more shots than ever, while limiting shots against.

What makes these numbers even sweeter is that Del Zotto is playing the toughest minutes of his career. He is consistently seeing the top opposition players, and is getting more penalty kill time than ever. In the face of all these new challenges, Del Zotto relative possession influence on his teammates is up significantly this year.

So where are the goals? Like so many Flyers this season, Del Zotto is seeing shockingly low shooting percentages. Individually, his current shooting percentage is 1.9 percent. Last year he was at 8.4, and he has never finished a season below 3.1. Even worse, when on the ice the Flyers as a group are shooting at 2.1 percent. His previous career low on that count is 6.76. These numbers are so low that they cannot possibly continue.

Most Philadelphia Flyers fans would have trouble identifying who exactly is their Top-6 defensemen this year, or who is their top pair. Here's a hint about the top pair: it's whoever is playing with Michael Del Zotto on that night. The bodies around him have shuffled in and out, but when the Flyers faced an early injury to Nick Schultz the other night, it was Del Zotto that stepped up and played over 29 minutes that game.

Del Zotto isn't making the fans swoon this season with as many picturesque goals. Everybody would like to see more of that this season, but what Del Zotto is doing other than scoring goals this season is perhaps even more important. For all the Flyers defensive prospects, none of them can be expected to be top-pair NHL players any time soon. Until then, expect to see a lot of Del Zotto on the ice in all situations for the Philadelphia Flyers.

Marc Naples is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter@SuperScrub47.