Senator Artem Zub Has Become More Important Than He Gets Credit For
There’s a little piece of Senators news that probably doesn’t look like much on the surface. Artem Zub is still recovering from the lower-body injury he suffered during Ottawa’s first-round playoff series, but the good news is that he expects to be ready for training camp. That sounds encouraging. It is. But there’s another way to look at it.
Zub is coming off the best offensive season of his NHL career. He played 81 games, scored 30 points, blocked 120 shots and finished with 25 assists. More importantly, he has become one of those players who quietly makes a team work. You don't always notice him when things are going well. You certainly notice when he's not there.
The Senators are an improved team with Zub in the lineup.
The easy thing to do with a 30-year-old defenseman coming off an injury is to shrug and say, “He’ll be fine.” And maybe he will. The fact that Zub expects to be ready for camp is obviously encouraging. But Ottawa shouldn't treat his recovery as something to simply check off the summer list.
The Senators are trying to move forward, and they need to know what their defence actually looks like when the games matter. Zub gives them something that isn't always easy to find: a veteran defenseman who can handle difficult minutes, block shots, play physically, and contribute a little offensively.
His 30-point season wasn't necessarily a sign that he's suddenly going to become an offensive defenseman. It was more useful than that. It showed that there was another level to his game. And now Ottawa needs to get that player back.
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This Is Really a Depth Test for the Senators.
This is where the bigger lesson comes in. Good teams don't build a roster assuming everybody will stay healthy. They build enough depth that one injury doesn't suddenly change the plan. Ottawa has had enough trouble with consistency over the years that it really can't afford to discover in October that its defensive depth isn't what it thought it was.
Zub's injury doesn't sound like a major concern right now. That's the important part. But the Senators should still be paying attention. Because if Zub comes back healthy and looks like the player he was last season, Ottawa has a pretty useful piece of its defence already in place. If he isn't ready, or if the injury lingers, the pressure on the rest of the group gets considerably greater.
That's why Zub’s little update is worth watching.
The Senators don't need Artem Zub to become somebody he's not. They need him to be healthy, dependable and difficult to play against. Sometimes the most important offseason news isn't a big signing or a blockbuster trade.
Sometimes it's simply encouraging to find out that one of your key players will be ready when the season starts.