As most of us expected the New York Rangers have announced that rookie D-man Micheal Del Zotto will be staying with the team. With the Rangers off to great start, Del Zotto has had a great start too with 3 goals and 8 points to tie him for the league lead amongst defencemen with Matt Carle of the Philadelphia Flyers.
On the surface this is great news for my fantasy team but you have to wonder how wise this decision really is. It’s hard to put your finger on what the factors are that make rookies play over their heads, whether it’s simply momentum, a “nothing to lose” attitude or something else entirely but the case could be made to return him to junior where he could build on this success, play in the world juniors tournament and grow in maturity.
“He has a nice strut to him,” head coach John Tortorella said. “But he hasn’t crossed the line.”
We all know that it’s easy to play loose when things are going well but what happens in year 2 is usually a different story altogether. Witness Toronto’s Luke Schenn, who was benched for most of Saturday nights third period in a loss to The Rangers, and has been struggling to find the form he displayed in his rookie season last year.
With high expectations having been placed on Schenn, and although he certainly isn’t the only one underachieving in Leafland, he is only 19 (for a couple more weeks at least) the pressure is surely affecting his play. It is common for young players to have a difficult sophomore season as they try to adjust from low to high expectations, especially if they set the bar high the previous year.
There are other factors that influence a players success following a hot rookie season, such as opposing teams keying in on them to shut them down, increased ice time and responsibilities, more media attention and so on but for a player like Del Zotto, who was snubbed by the Canadian Junior team just last year, confidence could be fragile at best. Why not give him a little more time to dominate in junior hockey, to blow a little oxygen on the spark he’s started?