It Might Be Time For Everyone To Stop Talking About Trading MDZ

The Flyers dropped yet another game to the Columbus Blue Jackets last night and holy balls was it a doozy. For the billionth time, I’m not expecting anything out of this team. They’re not a playoff team and even if by some miracle they were able to go on a run and grab a wild card spot (not gonna happen), they’d get torched in the first round regardless of who they are playing. And while the big wigs of big media will love to point out that the Flyers got more shots last night and they played really really hard, everyone watching realizes that they stink. However, there was one bright spot in the middle of the entire shit sandwich that was the Flyers last night. And that was Michael Del Zotto.

Zing. Now that snipe was worthy enough to just end all the discussion right there, but let’s still talk about this anyway.

With the NHL Trade Deadline quickly approaching, it’s the best time of the year for everyone to just start spewing feces out of their speak holes and talk about what the Flyers should and shouldn’t do. Which is all well and good, until you start even questioning bullshit like trading away MDZ. Now I know I may seem a tad biased here, and I know that there will be Rangers fans everywhere saying “LOL I can’t believe this clown actually thinks Del Zaster is good at hockey” and start jerking off to pictures of Kevin Klein. But you can’t sit there with a straight face and tell me that MDZ hasn’t been on an absolute tear since the All Star break. Way better than anyone could have expected. He’s been crushing ice time, playing a loose game, has been good enough defensively, producing offensively on a team that at times looks like they’re allergic to creating offense, and has great hockey hair. But yeah, I guess I’m a fucking idiot for thinking those are all good things.

I get the reasons behind people questioning whether Del Zotto should be on the trade block or not. He’s playing at a level right now where his trade value could be pretty high. And with Nick Schultz seeming to be a priority right now within the Flyers organization over Del Zotto, maybe people think that Berube isn’t necessarily interested in keeping Zorro around. And people love to bring up the idea that the Flyers have so many young, talented defensemen coming up through the ranks and proceed to say that’s why the Flyers don’t need Del Zotto anymore. But those people are idiots because these young defensemen are the exact reason why MDZ needs to stick around. I’m a big fan of Del Zotto, but obviously he didn’t know how to handle his shit in New York. He was a young kid with a ton of expectations weighing down on him, and he cracked. But now can teach these young guys like Ghost and Morin exactly what not do because he’s been in their exact same position before and has experienced how everything can go wrong. I think he’s matured enough by now to be a helpful mentor to guys like that.

After last night’s game, you’re probably not gonna find too many people who are calling for Del Zotto to get shipped out of Philly. I just wanted to point out the fact that the Flyers took the lowest risk in signing his last summer, and he has been a very pleasant surprise especially since the All Star break. His play has been great recently, he could be a huge help to the young blueliners coming up soon, and since he’ll be an RFA in the summer, it should be simple enough for the Flyers to sign him to another low-risk deal once the season is over. Plus, just think about all the t-shirt opportunities if he stick around for another year. It makes a million times more sense to keep Michael Del Zotto in Philadelphia than to trade him at the deadline like a bunch of jabronis. End of story.