from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,
The Wings have a home-and-home with the Ottawa Senators this weekend, a timely opportunity to address Zadina. He famously said, the night he was drafted No. 6 in 2018, that he would "fill the nets with pucks" of the teams who passed on him after he was projected to go as high as third overall. Those who passed on Zadina were the Montreal Canadiens at No. 3 (Jesperi Kotkaniemi, now with Carolina); the Senators at No. 4 (Brady Tkachuk) and the Arizona Coyotes (Barret Hayton). Zadina had 44 goals and 38 assists in 57 games with Halifax in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in his draft year and was known for his shot.
Nearly four years later, Zadina has 23 goals, 34 assists and a minus-51 rating in 151 career NHL games. Zadina is only 22, but there's enough of a body of work to indicate he isn't going to be a top producer. The damning part for the Wings is the pick immediately after Zadina, defenseman Quinn Hughes, has become a major part of the rebuild for the Vancouver Canucks, with 150 points in 194 games. (It's not always that easy, though; two years earlier, the Canucks drafted defenseman Olli Juolevi at No. 5, and he's now trying to revive his career with the Wings after failing to catch on with the Canucks and Florida Panthers.)
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