By Dan Heaning, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Before the team’s Saturday night contest against the Montreal Canadiens, it is expected that defenseman Michael Del Zotto will be activated and in the Flyers lineup for the first time since Feb. 13.
This likely means that defenseman Nick Schultz will be a healthy scratch and, possibly, sending Andrew MacDonald to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
There’s no question that Del Zotto is an upgrade from the two players. The Stouffville, Ontario native is a factor at both sides of the ice. He scored 10 goals for the Flyers in a 2014 campaign that saw Del Zotto inexplicably scratched for more games than he rightfully should have. Last season, he settled into a defensive role and logged slightly over 23 minutes per game for the Orange and Black.
MacDonald’s struggles this season have been well publicized. He’s turned the puck over, missed defensive coverage and, analytically speaking, some have accused his pairing with defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere to be a crucial reason for the sophomore’s early struggles this season as well.
In fact, in the last two years, MacDonald and Schultz have been the two lowest-rated players on the Flyers in terms of Fenwick and Corsi. That’s no surprise for Schultz, who is utilized as a stay-at-home defenseman and started 55 and 60 percent of his shifts in his own end for the past two seasons.
However, Schultz has seen 54 percent of his zone starts begin in the offensive zone, according to hockey-reference. Yet, his relative Corsi percentage is still in the -5 range. His on-ice save percentage has dipped from the 93 percent range in his first two Philly campaigns to 89 percent this season.
More egregiously, MacDonald has started in the attacking zone a whopping 57 percent of his shifts, but the extra offensive time has done little to help his typically bad advanced stats. His Corsi percentage sits at 47 percent while MacDonald’s relative Corsi percentage is -6.6.
Needless to say, these two defenders aren’t stuck with bad Corsi and Fenwick because the coaching staff are using them to strictly defend. In fact, the opposite is true. Head coach Dave Hakstol seems to be sheltering the two players and it still isn’t helping.
Conversely, when Del Zotto was put into a more defensive-oriented role last season, he flourished before a knee injury ended his campaign.
For the first time in his career, the former New York Ranger and Nashville Predator started more shifts in his own end than on the attack. Despite this, Del Zotto had the best advanced stats of his career. His Corsi For percentage was 51. The only time it was ever higher for the 26-year-old defenseman was during his New York days when he was seeing about 60 percent of his shifts beginning in the opposing end. His relative Corsi For percentage was 2.3, a career high, while his on ice save percentage was 92.8.
Simply put, when Del Zotto is on the ice, the puck stays out of the Flyers net a lot more because he helps get it out of the defensive zone and keep the play on the attack, as opposed to Schultz and MacDonald who get to start play on the attack but have to force more shots than they help create.
Del Zotto was brought to Philly as a last resort after blood clots effectively ended Kimmo Timonen’s career as a Flyer. The move was seen as a low-risk, high-reward proposition. Now as the eighth-year defenseman is set to return, the Flyers defensive core can begin to gel and rectify the defensive lapses that have plagued the league’s worst defensive team thus far in this young campaign.
It’ll most certainly be an addition by subtraction, but a huge piece is certainly returning to the Flyers lineup.
