When the Flyers made an offseason trade acquiring Trevor Zegras from the Anaheim Ducks, it was a swing to improve the center position with a creative and young forward that offered high-end talent. Zegras, who spent three weeks prior to camp in Philadelphia getting to know his new teammates, joked that the similar color scheme in practice jerseys made it easy to adjust.
All kidding aside, Zegras is looking to return to form as the creative and offensive-minded player that can instantly appear on a highlight reel. The 24-year-old forward has played in just 88 games over the last two seasons. In 2024-25, he scored 12 goals and 32 points in 57 games, certainly a distance from back-to-back 23-goal seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
Zegras had been moved out of the center position and placed on the wing over the last couple of seasons, and while that helped him work on the little things away from the puck and improve his overall game, it also had an impact on his confidence and comfort. That could be different moving forward, as the Flyers place him back at center.
“I think starting in the middle is good,” Zegras said. “I feel more comfortable there, I guess coming through the ice with speed. I’ve played center my whole hockey career up until last season.
“Confidence for sure. They want me there and they trust me there. Obviously, it’s going to be some work for sure, but it’s definitely a great start.”
That trust comes from the top with head coach Rick Tocchet. Zegras is looking forward to a fresh start with Tocchet and feels that he can establish the identity the team wants to have.
“I feel like it’s pretty easy to trust a guy like that,” Zegras said of Tocchet. “I think the team is going to play kind of how he played and try to form that identity. I think that’s all something we can get behind.”
On the first day of camp, Zegras was centering a line with Travis Konecny. Tocchet had referencing finding pairs on lines and being able to rotate in a third player to complete the trio, and the Zegras-Konecny combination was certainly a notable one.
Zegras certainly felt at ease alongside Konecny.
“It definitely helps, yes,” Zegras said. “You try to give it to him as much as you can, for sure. He’s very good.”
Another main aspect of playing center is taking face-offs. Zegras has turned to Flyers captain Sean Couturier for advice after noticing a particular detail in the latest NHL video game.
“I think the big thing with centers is face-offs. I was laughing with him. I was playing the new [NHL] video game and his X-factor is face-offs,” Zegras said. “So I went right to him and was like ‘what have you got for me?’ He had some really good little things that I’m going to try to work on and hopefully bring that into the season.”
“He’s the one who came up to me and wanted to learn. Credit to him for wanting to improve that area of his game,” Couturier said. “Any way I can help anyone on this team to make this team better, I’ll do it. I think it’s something he wants to work on and get better at. It’s fun to see young guys working on some part of their game.”