Oh, my God. This kid: Why the Ducks Trevor Zegras could be their next star

June 14, 2024

BOSTON — In his first Beanpot Tournament — and what figures to be his only — Trevor Zegras didn’t have his “A” game. From the start against Boston College, the freshman center for Boston University knew that he didn’t have his usual zeal when he was on the ice. Feeling far less than optimal before it, his energy went into building himself back up to play in the famed annual gathering over the first two Mondays in February that the area’s four hockey powers — BU, BC, Harvard and Northeastern — all want to win. Badly.

“I had nothing, dude,” Zegras recalled. “Nothing in the tank. It was so hard. But it was a lot of energy around the game. The Beanpot. Playing BC. So that helped me get through it.”

Now this is not a kid from right in the heart of Beantown. Not from parts outside the city or somewhere in greater New England. Zegras is a born-and-bred New Yorker from Bedford, where it’s an hour train ride to Manhattan. But the Beanpot was something he knew all about. He’d been watching it since he was “probably 10 or 11.” One of his favorite moments was seeing Alex Tuch, a Syracuse native and current Vegas Golden Knights right wing, sling in a no-look shot for BC to decide a scoreless game in overtime and give the Eagles the 2016 title over BU. But that’s balanced with the joy of watching Jack Eichel power the Terriers to the trophy the year before, their first in six years.

And if there was any question about his allegiances, Zegras has an unequivocal answer.

“BC’s already my least favorite team,” said the Anaheim Ducks’ top prospect, breaking into a smile. “I hate them. I haven’t hated a group of people more in my life. I don’t even know why. There’s just like an arrogance about them. It’s just … ahhh.”

So, the Beanpot mattered to him. And as that semifinal game moved toward its critical stages, the zeal that goes with the talent that made him a first-round NHL draft pick had returned with a flourish. By the end, the expressive Zegras was in full bloom and further whetted the appetite of a Ducks fanbase eager to have another star to pledge its allegiance.

The New York Rangers were Zegras’ team growing up. But Patrick Kane is his guy.

Given the things he tries on the ice, it makes total sense that the Chicago Blackhawks star is the player that Zegras admires. The wide array of shootout moves Kane has in his arsenal left an indelible imprint. Soon, Zegras was watching Kane highlight videos all the time on YouTube, but he wasn’t watching them for entertainment. He was in study mode. How did one of the NHL’s most imaginative players make that pass? How did he see that teammate to consider making that pass?

And then Zegras went outside to practice those Kane moves. And practice. And practice. If the weather didn’t cooperate, he would adapt.

“There weren’t many days that went by that he didn’t have a stick in his hand,” said Zegras’ father, Gary. “Mini-sticks. Floor ball sticks. Regular hockey stick. And (the) driveway. Inside the house, driving us crazy. But it was always stuff that he would work on and get it to the point where he felt comfortable enough to try those things in a game. When they hit, it looks crazy. But he’s probably done the spin-o-rama pass 10,000 times already.”

What Gary has appreciated is the coaches who have not zapped his son’s creativity out of him as the emphasis on team structure increased through the levels.

“And that’s huge,” the elder Zegras said. “He’s been very fortunate. Don’t get me wrong. At Avon (Old Farms), John Gardner is an old-school coach. Every now and again, he’d be like, in your own end, through the legs up through the middle of the ice, maybe we don’t try that one again. But for the most part, everyone who (Trevor has) ever played for, I think, appreciated that part of his game and encouraged it.

“It’s probably going to end at some point, but at most levels the coaches are OK with you making those types of plays in the right spots on the ice. Especially if they’re working. If some of those plays don’t work, you might find yourself on the bench. But when they hit, you get to go back out.”

Spencer Knight, a talented Boston College goalie that Florida selected four picks after Zegras, said Trevor has always had a vision for how plays develop, an attribute he didn’t see in anyone else as they grew up together. To Domenick Fensore, a teammate throughout their time in midget with the Mid-Fairfield Rangers, the United States National Team Developmental Program and as a fellow BU freshman, Zegras processes the game at a different level but is selfless enough to always involve his teammates.

“He sees the game from a vantage point no one sees it sometimes,” he said.

The spin-o-rama is an example. Hear Zegras explain it and you can see why to him, it’s not a show-off move. Even if he proudly wears the suggestion that he is a high-risk player as if it’s stitched onto his favorite hoodie.

“It’s kind of like what I’m good at,” he said. “Making plays like how I see it. And I think it’s a skill to want to make those plays. I think when you get in those high-pressure situations, late in games, I think it’s a talent to be able to make that pass or make that play under pressure.”

But there is a method to the madness. He isn’t doing it just because he can.

“When people see a spin-o-rama pass, you think it’s more for flash or for show,” Zegras said. “But if you really think about it, what the spin-o-rama is doing is it’s giving you time and space from a defender. And it’s also giving the forward you’re passing to a couple of extra seconds of delay to get to the spot that he needs to go. So, I think there’s a lot of things that really tie into that.

“It’s not only just the wow of the spin. It’s kind of the timing of it all. What it allows the players around you to do. There’s a lot of extra stuff that goes into it.”

One of those aspects is selling one thing to a defender and doing something else he doesn’t expect.

“That’s really all it is,” Zegras said. “It’s almost like false information almost. You’re baiting them one side. It’s where you want him to go. So it opens up that lane where you really want to go.”

Another look at the Zegras spin-o-rama assist pic.twitter.com/dIfcGDeYcv

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) December 30, 2019

This level of creativity comes from coaches who haven’t pushed it out of him.

“I’d say at Avon, that’s really where I first started making passes and getting creative,” Zegras said. “But I think at the NTDP is kind of really where I started. … I mean, I would try passes like that 15 or 20 times a game. And my coach (John Wroblewski) was great at the time. He never got on me. He never kind of put me down. Gave me a lot of confidence to make those plays.

“Even when it didn’t work, he didn’t get on me. I think that was really the best thing for me. Because I would try some questionable plays all the time. When it worked, it was great. But when it didn’t, he never really got on me.”

At BU, head coach Albie O’Connell worked on getting Zegras to embrace the finer details and further develop his game outside of setting teammates up for goals or scoring them himself — things like shooting the puck more, playing around the net and not lapsing into hanging around the perimeter. If he wants to be a center at the NHL level, Zegras must improve his faceoffs and stay diligent with backchecking and defensive-zone play.

But in their one season together, O’Connell encountered a player that takes to coaching and is motivated to get better.

“Those are the things — the harder things,” O’Connell said. “The stuff we’re asking him to do, anyone can do. The stuff that he can do, it’s kind of out of the ordinary. That’s the difference. We don’t want to put shackles on a guy who’s creative and skilled. Because he’s got a chance to make a play that could break the game open. But he’s got to understand time on the clock. Situational hockey. You didn’t probably need to go between the legs to throw a cross-ice pass when you could have just made a (regular pass). Just that sort of stuff.

“He’s coachable. But you’re not going to be able to do everything in three months, four months. It’s going to be a process for him as he continues to develop. When it’s all said and done, he’s going to be a dangerous player. If he shoots the puck and moves his feet all the time, he’s going to be deadly. He is deadly. Because you don’t know if he’s going to shoot or he’ll pass. He’s a guy that can do both in full stride and have deception on top of it.”

It has been all about finding that creativity within the rigidity of system structure.

“He’s been very fortunate,” Gary Zegras said. “Everywhere he’s been. At the (NTDP), it was to the 10th degree. That’s what they wanted. They wanted guys to be creative. Make plays. That two years there really pushed the envelope, which is great because it fit him perfectly.”

High expectations come with a high first-round pick, especially when some suggested this player has top-five talent even as he fell to the ninth overall pick, where the Ducks happily snapped him up.

Zegras has the high-end skills that could make him a top-six fixture in Anaheim’s lineup. If he develops into something better, it’s possible that he could be the worthy successor to longtime playmaker Ryan Getzlaf as the Ducks’ No. 1 center.

This isn’t to say he will be a player that can carry a franchise. He isn’t viewed as such. But there are those who see a potential core piece. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic recently wrote how Zegras has risen during his freshman season and that his passing has “a true star quality” element to it. Craig Button, a former NHL executive who heads up TSN’s scouting coverage, drew a comparison to a recent Calder Trophy winner.

“From the time I’ve watched Trevor — and I say this in context of where they were both at 17, 18 years of age — he reminds me so much at that age of Elias Pettersson,” Button said. “They were thinner. They weren’t as strong. But they had magnificent hands. They have that great vision. They have that great, great creativity.

“Now when you think about an Elias Pettersson, I’m not suggesting that Trevor will be an Elias Pettersson. But he has those traits. He’s that type of a player. And the Anaheim Ducks don’t have players like that.”

No, the Ducks don’t. Some of their best prospects have matriculated into lineup regulars or on the way to being that. Sam Steel and Troy Terry have offensive skill and are creative. Max Comtois has goal-scoring ability. Max Jones is applying polish to his raw talent. Isac Lundestrom continues to hone his two-way game in the minors. None of them are on Zegras’ level in terms of imagination with the puck.

In that Beanpot semifinal, Zegras showed off the vision and passing that set him apart. Situated along the wall in front of the BC goal line, Zegras took Patrick Harper’s pass and spotted Robert Mastrosimone making a move toward the net. Four Eagles defenders had their eyes on him. One headed in his direction, one backtracked toward the net and another stayed in between the circles in front of Knight. With barely a moment of hesitation, Zegras zipped a scorching pass from the corner onto the stick of Mastrosimone and his teammate one-timed a shot between Knight’s pads. The goal capped a stirring three-goal rally and had BU’s student section rocking.

Trevor Zegras came up with the sweet pass across to Mastrosimone, who buried it through the five-hole to give BU the late lead. #BUvsBC #Beanpot (via @NESN) pic.twitter.com/sZN1So33tq

— Boston Hockey Blog (@BOShockeyblog) February 4, 2020

It wasn’t in the realm of his spin-o-rama backhand feed to Jack Drury in his World Junior Championship showcase. Or his spin-o-rama forehand find to a trailing Curtis Hall in the tournament. But the pass to Mastrosimone at high speed on his tape is not one everyone can make. However, when he was asked to rate that assist on scale of difficulty, Fensore said, “With 10 being the hardest, probably like a three or four. That’s an easy play for him. Easy play.”

“When I got the puck, it was kind of off the glass and I just batted it down,” Zegras said. “As it’s coming down, I was just looking. I saw the D at the net front. His skates were facing up the ice. I knew obviously Robert was busting to the net. Really, it was just kind of a simple play. All I had to do was just throw it off his heels. The D, there’s no way he can turn around and make that play.

“It was just kind of a bang-bang play. And I knew it was going to happen quick, so I just had to get it off. He made a hell of play because I rifled it to him.”

Simple play?

“For him, it’s simple,” Fensore said. “But for all the other guys, I don’t think it’s so simple. He sees the ice so well. That’s one of his plays. He loves his creative passes. In the world junior tournament, obviously he threw these behind-the-back passes and stuff like that. Just crazy to watch.

“I’ve known him my whole life. I’ve been seeing that play from him a lot. But to people watching now, they go, ‘Oh, my God. This kid. What is he doing?’ To me, he does it all the time.”

It’s plays like that where Button not only sees a future NHL playmaker but one that can make his teammates better. He calls it “360-degree awareness” and that those plays aren’t what he hopes to make but expects to make.

“He sees developing plays two or three steps ahead,” Button said. “One of the big things when you’re projecting players and you ask yourself what translates. When he starts playing with better players and he moves up levels and the skill level is better with him, that’s only going to be magnified. It’s going to be magnified, that creativity. Because when he gets with players that are like-minded, they are going to be able to take advantage of it.”

Zegras didn’t conjure that flair for the dramatic just for the semifinal. He had two of his 11 goals for BU this season in the title game against Northeastern. The second came with his team in a complete scramble to tie the game and the final seconds ticking off in regulation. It was Zegras that found the spot to be, sniffing around the Husky net and then taking Jake Wise’s heads-up pass and putting in a quick backhand shot with 1.2 seconds left.

Before his teammates could mob him on the ice, Zegras broke loose and tugged on his red Boston University sweater to show what school he was representing before furiously skating back to the bench and leaping into a joyous celebration.

After a chaotic final sequence, Trevor Zegras buries it with less than half a second to play. BU has forced overtime in the Beanpot final. #BUvsNU #Beanpot (via @NESN) pic.twitter.com/HV9vZTrpFn

— Boston Hockey Blog (@BOShockeyblog) February 11, 2020

“He’s one of those kids where he likes the big moments,” said Todd Marchant, the Ducks’ director of player development. “He does have that flair for the dramatic. Which is something you can’t teach. You either have it or you don’t have it.”

We know about his exploits in carving out his own impressive resume on an ultra-talented, ultra-tight U.S. under-18 squad. We know what looked to be a star turn for the assist machine in the World Junior Championship this past winter before the Americans were abruptly bounced from the quarterfinals by Finland.

But what do we know about him?

Hang around with Zegras or just listen to him for a bit and you’ll get someone that exudes … the proper word in this case is chill. You may know him for only a few minutes, or you may know him for almost a lifetime, but you can earn dude status in his book.

“Ever since we were younger, he was always that kind of guy,” Fensore said. “Telling jokes in the locker room. He was like the face of the team. Everyone looked up to him. He was the guy to bring the personality and stuff like that. That’s just Trev.”

Knight smiles broadly when it comes to talking about his friend and that personality. The two go back to age-division hockey as squirts.

“He’s a fun guy,” the BC goalie said. “He’s always up-tempo. Always looking to have a good time.”

“Yeah, he talks a lot,” Fensore said. “Fun guy.”

“Extrovert,” Knight said. “For sure. I wouldn’t call him a class clown. He’s just got a happy sense of humor. He just likes having fun. That’s the way he is.”

Trevor Zegras celebrates after scoring to force OT against Northeastern at the Beanpot. (Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

O’Connell knows. He hears the “kind of a jabber jaw” on the bus. He hears Zegras on the bench. He hears him in the mail room. He hears him talking to the referees and to fans.

“Every guy’s different,” said O’Connell, a former Terrier player who succeeded David Quinn in 2018. “He’s not malicious. He’s not on guys. He just talks a lot. He’s excited about playing and excited about practice every day. Sometimes he gets a little bit aggravated during games. He’ll get a little loud. That just comes with time and maturity.

“We don’t mind it. It hasn’t bothered the other guys on the team. Coaches are OK with his personality. I think there’s times where I think the captains probably have to tell him to tone it down a little bit. Most of it is pretty positive.”

Little, it seems, is off limits.

“He’s just got a big personality,” O’Connell said. “Pretty vocal guy. Pretty funny. Comes up with some one-liners and some interesting comments on things. Keeps the mood light.”

Gary Zegras knows. He knows all about the effect his son has of drawing people to him.

“I don’t want to say this in a negative but not in a leader like you think of like a Mark Messier or those types of guys. Where it’s a hardcore, ‘Follow me,’” he said. “It’s more where he’s got an engaging personality. He’s got good friendships with all his teammates. It’s been that way since he was little. He always seems to be at the center of attention. People are drawn to him for whatever reason, and it’s hard to put your finger on exactly what it is. I’m sure it has a lot to do with his personality.

“And then you grow on top of it where you’re playing that sport at a high level. I think that combination has always drawn people to him.”

The highs and lows of Trevor Zegras’ emotions were on display at the Beanpot. It was pure excitement and exuberance when teammate Wilmer Skoog scored the overtime winner to beat BC and send the Terriers to the championship game against Northeastern. It was full-on exhilaration when he scored that goal with 1.2 seconds left to keep BU alive in sending the title match into overtime. And it was pure anger and despair when he yelled in the direction of the referees and slammed his stick on the ice as Northeastern captured the Beanpot with a power-play goal on a questionable BU penalty that still had O’Connell riled up afterward.

Trevor Zegras and the Terriers are mighty pissed that the Beanpot Final was decided on a soft call like that. pic.twitter.com/xIflXek5A6

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 11, 2020

“Listen, at some point, you want to probably even out those highs and lows a little bit,” Gary Zegras said. “Normally he does. But a big moment in a big game like that, you really saw it come out. He was wearing it on his sleeve that night. And I’m OK with that. We talked a little bit about the referee situation. At the same time, I think his teammates and his coaches and certainly we, I felt that. I get it.

“I’m OK with the fact that it meant a lot to you to win that game. Especially, he was bummed out for the seniors who haven’t won a Beanpot and they were moving on. His buddy Patrick Harper was in the penalty box when the goal got scored. It got the best of him. Part of it was like, ‘I get it.’ I’m glad that he cared that much, to be honest with you. You probably got to go around it a little different way going forward. But I certainly appreciated how much he cared and the passion that he had in that moment.”

That’s the takeaway Gary wants people to get. Trevor truly cares. Even if he seems as carefree as one can be.

“He has a love and a passion for the game,” Gary said. “He is a competitive S.O.B. From as young as I can remember, whether it’s on the rink or we’re playing golf or tennis or playing cards, winning has always been important to him. Sometimes people look at the fact that he’s got a smile on his face and he’s not afraid to joke around a little bit. But make no mistake about it. When the horn sounds or the whistle blows, when the game begins, he’s always been the most competitive kid.

“He wants to be the best player on the ice. He wants his team to win. I think there’s nothing more that he likes than sliding a pass over to one of his teammates and watching him put it in the net. You literally see the joy in that aspect of it.”

Said Knight: “A lot of people see that (fun) side of him. He’s serious in the way he thinks the game. He’s really mature in hockey and he wants to get better.”

When will Trevor Zegras join the Ducks?

First, he has to sign an entry-level contract. On draft night last summer in Vancouver, Zegras told The Athletic that he felt he needed one season of college and then he would be ready for the NHL. Every indication is that he is holding to that thought process.

The holdup is a hockey season that has been dramatically altered by an unprecedented stoppage of competition at every level, with leagues across all sports either postponing or canceling games as a preventative measure of limiting the potential spread of the coronavirus. The NHL and American Hockey League have put their seasons on “pause” while the ECHL suspended play for the remainder of the 2019-20 season.

The NCAA canceled all postseason tournament play for the winter sports in addition to spring competition as the world deals with the evolving COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of the initial decision, Boston University was to play Massachusetts-Lowell in the Hockey East quarterfinals. It meant that Zegras’ final college game was a 2-1 home loss to Northeastern in the regular-season finale.

Privately, BU felt that Zegras was leaning toward leaving as opposed to him returning for his sophomore season. And it is strongly believed that he’ll ink a contract with the Ducks once there is further clarification on whether the NHL or AHL is able to resume their seasons. A likely starting spot is San Diego, where the AHL’s Gulls were in playoff position when their season came to a sudden halt.

The more pertinent question isn’t whether Zegras wants to sign with the Ducks but if one year of college was enough to put him in position to have immediate success as a pro. All those interviewed and others who watched him regularly agree that he needs more strength on his wiry 170-pound frame.

Zegras said he worked out with his teammates twice a week and fit in additional gym time on Sundays when the Terriers didn’t have weekend games. But building bigger muscles isn’t the focus. It is about creating more explosion from his skating.

“Power and separation are what I’m looking for,” he said.

And it’s not that he destroyed NCAA competition. His 36 points in 33 games were impressive for a freshman, tying him with Wisconsin’s Cole Caufield — a NTDP teammate — for third among first-year players. It earned him Hockey East all-rookie team honors. But BU junior defenseman David Farrance, the team’s leading scorer and a promising Nashville Predators prospect, is the one that’s a Hobey Baker Award finalist.

Button is one of those that wonders if Zegras would find greater benefit from a second college season.

“We ask ourselves this question all the time,” Button said. “Are they ready? I would say the vast majority of cases, the answer is no. We all get high on young players, and we all think that they’re all going to be ready to do it. The NHL is really, really hard.

“I’m an advocate of, ‘Dominate your level.’ Dominate it. And I’ll give you no better example than Quinn Hughes and Cale Makar. They got drafted out of college in their freshman years because they’re late birthdays. But they went back for a year. They dominated college hockey. Absolutely owned it. Cale wins the Hobey Baker. Quinn is right there in the finalists. Now you watch them come in the NHL. Another year under their belts. Another year of confidence. Another year of physical maturity. And look at them.”

All signs point to Trevor Zegras joining the Ducks after just one season of college hockey. (Anne-Marie Sorvin / USA TODAY Sports)

To further extrapolate Button’s point, Zegras wasn’t head and shoulders better than his competition like Eichel, a Hobey winner, was as a freshman. But the longtime scout also said Zegras was outstanding at the WJC and felt he got better as the college season went on. Even one year could help the transition from college to the pro game go smoother than his fellow NTDP standout, Jack Hughes, who endured significant growing pains as he made the jump right from the program to New Jersey’s roster as last summer’s No. 1 overall pick.

Where the Ducks are at in their evolution will make the transition interesting for Zegras. They’ve got serviceable players. Some are leading pieces that are leaned on. But they’re not flowing with All-Star level talent. And they’re also not deep enough to insulate him. The example of Steel and Terry struggling with inconsistent offensive production in their first full seasons on a club near the bottom of the Western Conference is an example that immediate NHL success is never a guarantee.

“Obviously, Anaheim is in a rebuild right now,” Zegras said last month. “I think when the time’s right, it’ll just make sense. Obviously, it’ll be a tough decision because I love the place I’m at. I love BU. I love my teammates. The decision will be definitely tough just because I’m having such a great time here.”

The Ducks have monitored him throughout this past season. Marchant and his development staff have checked in often with visits. They’ve let him concentrate on handling his class schedule and the Terriers.

Whether they feel he is ready now or needs more time appears moot. The important thing is they have liked what they’ve seen as the year progressed.

“Obviously, his hockey sense and his skill speak for themselves,” Marchant said. “He has the uncanny ability of finding players that you don’t think are open. He finds a way to put it on their tape. I feel as though he’s gotten stronger this season physically and he’s going to have to continue to get stronger if he’s going to play at this level in the NHL.

“But he’s young. He’s 19 years old. Time will take over that part of his development.”

And there could be an interesting dynamic when Zegras does arrive in Anaheim. Alex Turcotte, his NTDP running mate, left Wisconsin and recently signed with the rival Kings after they took him with the fifth selection last summer. Arthur Kaliyev, a talented goal scorer the Kings chose in the second round, figures to eventually join Turcotte in Los Angeles.

At the WJC, it was Zegras and Kaliyev that cooked up a scoring concoction as linemates. Last summer, Zegras and Turcotte embraced within the corridors of Rogers Arena after they had their big moments in the draft spotlight. Teams captured it on video, and Zegras’ dad reveled in the responding comments he read. “People were like, ‘Get that hug out of the way because we’re enemies’,” he said, laughing.

His son has fantasized about playing against them in a heated setting.

“It’s just funny,” Zegras said. “Me and Turcotte have been really good buddies over the past couple of years. To one day play against him in a rivalry like that? I don’t know. Who knows? I can’t even imagine. But hopefully it’ll be good.”

Nearly 15 years ago, Getzlaf and Corey Perry made their NHL debuts. They would become the pillars that held up the Ducks through their longest run of success. Now the time is coming to find out if Trevor Zegras can be the forward to take the mantle from Getzlaf and lead them into another arc of winning.

(Photo of Trevor Zegras: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)

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