The hype up & fizzle out of former Detroit Red Wing Filip Zadina

Filip Zadina, oh what could have been? The sixth overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft was supposed to be one of the answers to a problem that had plagued the Detroit Red Wings for years: scoring goals. A lot of them.

He said in an Interview with Brad Galli when asked what he "brings to the Red Wings" to which he answered, "I bring the goals".

At this time, the Red Wings had little in the way of legitimate goal-scoring. In fact, the 2017-18 season was led in goals by Anthony Mantha with 24 goals, followed closely by Gustav Nyquist with 21. So, having a player projected to be at least a 30-goal-scoring winger fall to sixth was seen as a blessing.

He had so much promise, but ultimately fell VERY short of where he was expected to be. But what exactly went wrong in the career of Filip Zadina?

The hype up and fizzle out of Filip Zadina, former Detroit Red Wings player

Zadina was projected to be a top-three pick in his draft. Having some of the best offensive numbers in the 2018 NHL Draft, he was expected to become an elite-level goal scorer in the NHL. Somewhere between Dylan Larkin and Alex Debrincat would roughly be the scale I would use to gauge his potential at the time. In short, he was expected to be a 30-40 goal-scoring top-six winger.

His first season with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2018-19 was solid, a season that saw him post 16 goals, and 19 assists for 35 points in 59 games. While it wasn't the production many hoped to see from him at the pro level, it wasn't anything to worry about at the time. Most prospects don't jump from the junior level straight to the pro level immediately after their draft and the ones who do don't usually dominate in their first season. He also got a nine-game stint with the Red Wings where he notched one goal and two assists for three points.

His second season was more of the same as his first. In 21 games with the Griffins during the 2019-20 season, he netted nine goals and seven assists for 16 points which is respectable for a 19-year-old in the AHL. However, he got called up to the Red Wings for 28 games where he netted eight goals and seven assists for 15 points. While this was also respectable for his first extended stint in the NHL, some fans began to worry that he wouldn't be much more than a half-point per game player. This would be fine for most players in the NHL, but not necessarily for a prospect as highly touted as Zadina was.

His third season was halted by the shortened season due to the COVID pandemic which saw all major sports leagues put their seasons on hold for an extended period. During this time, Zadina went overseas to play in the Czech league where he was nearly a point per game after 17 games. Once the NHL was allowed to reopen, Zadina made his way back over to North America and played 49 games of the 56 games in the 2020-21 season where he was only able to notch six goals and 13 assists for 19 points.

The hype for Zadina quickly faded for Red Wings fans, as the guy the team drafted to be one of their future stars hasn't shown that he can even get to double-digit goals. In the 2021-22 season, he did very little to silence in a contract year, scoring just 10 goals and 14 assists for 24 points in 74 games. destroying any hope Red Wings fans had of him being the much needed Red Wings star goal scorer. However, Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman saw his potential and gave him a 3-year contract extension worth $1.825 million. Giving him a second chance that he could be the star goal-scorer the Red Wings drafted.

Unfortunately, Zadina wasn't able to put it together really at all to start this new contract. Getting injured early in the 2022-23 season with a (reportedly) broken leg. When he returned at the beginning of 2023, he did very little to show that he was worth his new contract. Notching just 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points in the 30 games he played. He got injured again that season in March ending his season.

In the end, Zadina seemed to not like his position in the Red Wings lineup and voluntarily and mutually terminated his contract with the team, leaving over $3 million left on his contract to make a bet on himself in free agency, ultimately landing with the San Jose Sharks on a 1-year $1.1 million prove it deal. He recorded his secnd best stat line in his career, notching 13 goals and 10 assists for 23 points in 72 games but wasn't extended by the Sharks.

After testing his luck in free agency for the last two months, he opted to go back overseas and was inevitably signed in the Swiss Hockey League with Hockey Club Davos, returning to Europe to continue his pro hockey career overseas. Even though there were reportedly three teams interested in him in some form (Montreal Canadiens and the Buffalo Sabres were two interested teams).

While you kind of have to admire his decision to take a bet on himself and leave the kind of money that he did, I think that it's safe to consider Filip Zadina the biggest Red Wings prospect bust at least in the 2010s and quite possibly in Red Wings draft history.