How Ducks' Zellweger, Mintyukov have played in regular blue-line roles after deadline clear-out

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The moves around last week’s trade deadline focused on one thing for the Anaheim Ducks: opening up the left side of the blue line.

With the skyrocketing of Jackson LaCombe into the No. 1 defenseman spot and right-handed Drew Helleson earning a reliable role since his November call-up, Anaheim was forced to sit one of its 21-year-old left-handed defenseman–Pavel Mintyukov or Olen Zellweger–each night.

After being labelled as a difference-maker by Ducks coach Greg Cronin early in the season, Zellweger was a healthy scratch in 16 of the 28 games leading up to last Friday’s trade deadline, and Mintyukov sat in the seven of 28. With a lot invested in the future of the Ducks blue line, something had to give

“When you're a young player,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said on the team's Ducks Stream podcast, “and you've been playing and you get pulled out of the lineup and there's reasons that you get pulled out, and then there's other times there's reasons you don't deserve to come out of the line-up. It's puzzling to the players, and it wrecks their confidence.

“At some point, I don't want that anymore.”

Ultimately, the telegraphed move was left-handed veteran Brian Dumoulin, who Anaheim had acquired from Seattle for a fourth-round pick last offseason and sent to New Jersey last week in exchange for a prospect and a second-round pick.

“When we had Dumo, I think we just had seven good defensemen,” Zellweger said. “I don't know if it was a logjam, but, I mean, just the way it was. I think (Dumoulin) was huge off the ice for me. He was someone that takes the game very seriously.”

Zellweger is quite committed to the game himself, regularly the last one off the ice for practice by a good 20 minutes in nearly every session. Zellweger will also take to the Honda Center ice in shorts and sneakers two hours before puck drop to exercise his stick skills.

With the left side spot opened up and Oliver Kylington brought in as the stated seventh defenseman, Zellweger will get the minutes in the home stretch of the season to showcase his talent and make his case to be mainstay in the Anaheim defense for years to come.

“I think I just gotta play like myself,” Zellweger said. “I think I started the year really strong. Then I don't know, things kind of went different directions, a little bit inconsistent. Just kind of getting back to us speed and a lot of involvement where I can in the rush.”

In his first four games with the restrictor plate finally removed, Zellweger has done just that, pushing the pace of play and being a dynamic instrument on the rush. He’s also displayed his skating ability and stick skills to get back into the defensive zone and disrupt play.

Zellweger stands at just 5-foot-10, 187 pounds, but every ounce of that is pure muscle, as the Calgary native’s weight room habits have been touted since day one.

Over the four games, Zellweger’s average time-on-ice bumped up a full minute to over 20 minutes per game, fourth-highest on the team. He is averaging just under 19 minutes a night in 47 games this season.

This week, the Ducks earned a positive expected goals share with Zellweger on the ice at five-on-five at 50.45%, third-highest among Anaheim defensemen. Zellweger also posted the highest on-ice shot attempt share among Ducks defensemen at five-on-five with a mark of 49.17%.

“Zelly's obviously a pretty dynamic defenseman offensively,” Cronin said, “and I think he's really worked hard defensively to strengthen his game. He's a very focused young player that I think has learned the balance of when to get involved offensively and when not to. I want to see him continue to strengthen that balance.

“For me, his role model should be a Quinn Hughes type of guy. He has the ability to do some of those dynamic things, so I'm excited to watch him.”

For Anaheim’s other 21-year-old blue-liner, Zellweger’s firecracker injection into the line-up has meant a slight step back for Mintyukov.

The young Russian has averaged over 13 minutes per game over the last four games, down from his average of just over 18 minutes a night in 53 games this season. Mintyukov has played on the third pairing with Helleson, and Zellweger took Mintyukov’s spot alongside Jacob Trouba.

However, Mintyukov has three points in the last three games, including a goal and assist against league-leading Washington on Tuesday, and was a plus-5 over the last four games. In the same stretch, Zellweger did not produce a point and was a minus-5.

“I think for Pavel, I think he's had an up and down season, been kind of in and out,” Verbeek said. “I think getting it going out of the lineup has kind of hurt his confidence quite a bit.

“He was recovering from an injury from last year when he blocked (an Isac Lundeström shot), and it kind of damaged his knee… From my perspective, it's been hard for him to trust his legs, to get back for pucks and having that extra half a second to make the play. So having said that, I think he's found it difficult at times where men kind of get behind him in the defensive zone and he allows them.”

Mintyukov had his own stretch of healthy scratches at the end of December and beginning of January, as Cronin specifically pointed out the needed improvement in his off-puck defending.

Mintyukov said he’s become more physical this season and worked on improving that positioning, but the Ducks management clearly sees more for the young blue-liner.

“I've had talks with Pavel in the sense that, Pavel, we want you to be a great player,” Verbeek said, “but we want you to be a player that we can put out in the last minute of a game to defend a lead, but also provide offense. So you're going through these hard lessons right now, and it's important for you to go through them, but we want you to make sure that you're looking for the details in your game.”

Most importantly for either Zellweger or Mintyukov is that both are now playing every night and getting meaningful minutes to spur their development, as Anaheim continues to scratch and claw on the fringes of the playoff race.

“I wanted the young guys playing to experience this opportunity to make the playoffs,” Verbeek said. “I think it's so important for our younger players to go through this, to feel that pressure, to feel that pressure to play meaningful games, to feel that pressure to get into the playoffs.”

The Ducks are eight points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference with 17 games to play.

Anaheim (28-30-7, 63 points) hosts Nashville (25-32-7, 57 points) on Friday before heading to St. Louis (31-28-7, 69 points), which is two points out of the playoffs, on Sunday.