Michael Del Zotto hoping to impress Flyers in contract year

Share

VOORHEES, N.J. — If you package a ball of energy on the ice in the form of a player, it would resemble Michael Del Zotto.

No player among the 64 who will be in training camp Friday morning has waited as long as he has to resume his career.

The 26-year-old defenseman missed the final 28 games of the 2015-16 regular season, as well as the playoffs against Washington last spring, recovering from left wrist surgery.

“I’ve been itching to go since January,” Del Zotto said. “I’m feeling really good. I can’t wait for the season to start.”

Del Zotto’s presence, along with highly-regarded 19-year-old prospect Ivan Provorov, gives the Flyers potentially eight NHL defensemen for the upcoming season.

Although his original recovery was slated for four months, the damage and complexity of his surgery was such that Del Zotto was not medically cleared for contact until August.

The thing is, it wasn’t just a single-game injury, but multiple games.

He originally injured his wrist on Dec. 21 at home against St. Louis, the Flyers' final game before the Christmas break. Unknown then, Del Zotto had suffered ligament damage.

Hours before the Flyers' schedule resumed on Dec. 27 in Anaheim, the club announced he would miss the game because of that same injury.

He missed two games, then returned to the lineup still injured and trying to fight through it.

On Feb. 13 against New Jersey, Del Zotto had a hard third period collision at the net with Kyle Palmieri and left the game holding his left wrist.

He missed the next three games before the club announced Feb. 20 in Toronto he had a fracture and was done for the season, an announcement neither he nor the team expected to make.

“I hurt it against St. Louis right before the Christmas break and missed a week or whatever it was after Christmas break,” he said. “Once I was able to pass and shoot the puck a little bit, I was back in the lineup.

“But I couldn’t keep myself in the lineup knowing I would be a liability and not be trustworthy or responsible on the ice. I didn’t want to hurt my teammates. It just got worse and worse over time and eventually, it got to the point I was ineffective and hurting the team.”

Jonas Matzon, a hand specialist at Jefferson Hospital, performed the surgery which disclosed more damage than MRIs had originally shown.

“When they went into to repair it, they saw it was a lot worse than they thought,” Del Zotto said. “I had torn the ligament completely off the bone. Six months is a long time.”

Del Zotto thought he might return if the Flyers went deep into the playoffs but given the damage, that wasn’t going to happen, either.

General manager Ron Hextall was caught off guard, as well.

“Any injury that is season ending, you are surprised about,” he said. “You don’t go into any year expecting Player X to be injured, but it happens. That is depth. We look at depth every summer. If this guy gets injured, who do we have to come up?”

Ironically, Del Zotto’s injury saw the return of Andrew MacDonald and the changing of defensive pairs. MacDonald and Shayne Gostisbehere became an excellent pair the remainder of the season.

Del Zotto said as bad as it was watching from the press box, his rehab over the summer was just as tortuous. Every morning outside Toronto, he was working out by 6:30 a.m. He admits he was so anxious to return to full health, he didn’t even take a few weeks off over the start of the summer like he normally would.

“Maybe I got a little bit of a head start because I’ve been training since February," he said. "I couldn’t do much upper body at all because of my hand.

“I was at rehab every day and training and bought a house back home which was pretty exciting. Nice to be a home owner just outside Toronto. It was hockey and rehab all summer, making sure my health was where I need it to be this season.”

This is the final year of his two-year, $7.5 million “bridge” contract he signed two summers ago just days before an arbitration hearing.

Given the youth brigade the Flyers have started on the blue line with Ghost — and now Provorov expected to make the team this fall — Del Zotto is facing competition from players younger — not older — than himself and needs to be fully healthy to earn that next contract.

“Yeah, it’s like that every year,” he said. “There is competition in camp with everyone trying to earn a spot. No one comes here just to say they were at training camp.

“They have a purpose and have worked hard all summer. There’s only so many spots. Everyone is competing. It’s healthy competition. Everyone pushing each other will only make this team better.”

This will be his third season as a Flyer. His first season was impressive with 10 goals and 32 points but the fact remains he had two better seasons, in terms of point production, when he was with the New York Rangers, who drafted him (20th overall) in 2008.

In other words, Del Zotto would like to see this become a breakout season for him to earn a long-term contract.

“Eighth year in the league and it’s crazy how quickly it goes by,” he said. “Each year you learn more and more about the game, about the players you play against and with. Just the maturing process.

“Last year, I was pretty unfortunate. I was gone such a long time, a crucial time, especially with us making that big run to the playoffs.”

There was one positive.

“Being able to watch the game from the top [press box], you see things from a different angle,” Del Zotto said. “You can step back a little bit. I’m so excited to be back and this close to the season.”

Contact Us