MARTIN HANZAL - Center - 32 - $4.75MM Cap Hit - UFA in 2020-2021
LAST UPDATED 8/17/19
When they signed him, the Dallas Stars likely envisioned that Martin Hanzal would bring his high level defensive play and moderate levels of offensive production to Dallas and fill the team's hole at center behind Tyler Seguin. Unfortunately for the Stars, Hanzal has been a complete disaster of a signing. He seems to have lost his career-long battle to stay healthy, as he has only played in 45 games as a Dallas Star. This past season, Hanzal played in seven NHL games, and scored one goal. He was paid $5MM this year, meaning the Stars paid Hanzal $700,000+ per game. So yeah, not a great investment. As for his on-ice scouting report, unfortunately Hanzal has been so injured that we really don't have a clear picture of what he can offer a team at this stage of his career. If he plays a full 82 games, is it reasonable to expect Hanzal to be a light-scoring, defensive 4C? Sure, but Hanzal has never played 82 games in a season before and teams typically prefer reliability from their depth players. Also, Hanzal's isolated impact metrics are very low on his defensive game, so it's therefore questionable whether Hanzal could really provide shutdown value if his skating and overall physicality has taken such a hit thanks to his injuries. For Hanzal to play a high-end defensive game, he'd need to take risks with his body in order to successfully win board battles and fight for pucks. If he does that, though, he'll get injured, which eliminates his on-ice value. So, while I do hope for Hanzal's sake that he can revive his career, I'm very pessimistic about him. At this point, I hesitate to call him a legitimate NHL player anymore due to his inability to get into the lineup and his inability to play quality defensive hockey when he is healthy.
When they signed him, the Dallas Stars likely envisioned that Martin Hanzal would bring his high level defensive play and moderate levels of offensive production to Dallas and fill the team's hole at center behind Tyler Seguin. Unfortunately for the Stars, Hanzal has been a complete disaster of a signing. He seems to have lost his career-long battle to stay healthy, as he has only played in 45 games as a Dallas Star. This past season, Hanzal played in seven NHL games, and scored one goal. He was paid $5MM this year, meaning the Stars paid Hanzal $700,000+ per game. So yeah, not a great investment. As for his on-ice scouting report, unfortunately Hanzal has been so injured that we really don't have a clear picture of what he can offer a team at this stage of his career. If he plays a full 82 games, is it reasonable to expect Hanzal to be a light-scoring, defensive 4C? Sure, but Hanzal has never played 82 games in a season before and teams typically prefer reliability from their depth players. Also, Hanzal's isolated impact metrics are very low on his defensive game, so it's therefore questionable whether Hanzal could really provide shutdown value if his skating and overall physicality has taken such a hit thanks to his injuries. For Hanzal to play a high-end defensive game, he'd need to take risks with his body in order to successfully win board battles and fight for pucks. If he does that, though, he'll get injured, which eliminates his on-ice value. So, while I do hope for Hanzal's sake that he can revive his career, I'm very pessimistic about him. At this point, I hesitate to call him a legitimate NHL player anymore due to his inability to get into the lineup and his inability to play quality defensive hockey when he is healthy.
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