suffered a scary injury to his knee<\/a>, which caused him to miss a significant amount of games. He then would go on to get injured in a game versus the Dallas Stars a couple of months later, after being involved in a collision with Stars forward Mikko Rantanen.<\/p>\nThe injury history Zary has is concerning and can certainly affect the trajectory of a player\u2019s career, especially when these injuries happen when the player is still young. Flames fans want to see a full, healthy season from Zary, but as of right now, the 24-year-old just can\u2019t catch a break.<\/p>\n
Zary\u2019s production as a Flame so far<\/p>\n
Flames fans can tell you firsthand that Zary has a boatload of talent. From highlight reel goals to incredible offensive sequences, Zary is a player who has an immense amount of hockey IQ.<\/p>\n
However, we\u2019ve yet to see Zary have that breakout season, and much of that can be attributed to injury, of course, but it can also raise questions about his true ceiling as an NHLer. So far in 67 games this season, Zary has 11 goals and 24 points. Now, to be fair, the entire team has struggled to score this season, and Ryan Huska\u2019s system isn\u2019t exactly known for producing offence. Additionally, with Zary at times getting little amounts of ice time due to being stapled to the fourth line, it doesn\u2019t create the best scenario for him to succeed. <\/p>\n
Whether Zary is poised to become a middle-six forward or a top-six forward with skill, there\u2019s no doubt that fans would like to see more from him. A realistic point total to expect from Zary would be 40-50 points minimum. <\/p>\n
Does Zary fit into the Flames\u2019 plans?<\/p>\n
It might seem ridiculous to question whether a 24-year-old fits into a team\u2019s future, but for Zary, it\u2019s a real consideration that must be made. If he continues to struggle with injury, not only would his time with the Flames likely come to an end, but his NHL career as a whole could be in jeopardy. Now obviously this hasn\u2019t happened, and I hope it never does, but with every injury comes that risk. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s also worth noting that Zary was drafted as a centre, but has played very little in that position during his time in the NHL. At this point, it\u2019s looking unlikely that Zary becomes a full-time centre in the NHL unless something drastically changes. <\/p>\n
Zary is still young, and there\u2019s still time for him to develop and grow. But once a player hits the ages of 24-26, their ceiling becomes clearer in most cases. As the Flames continue to accumulate young talent, there\u2019s the possibility that many of these players end up passing Zary on the depth chart, which could result in him being a piece that the team could see as expendable.<\/p>\n
I still think Zary has yet to show what he\u2019s truly capable of, as injuries have gotten in the way of that. However, there\u2019s only a matter of time before a player hits their ceiling and is what they are. Could that already be happening with Zary? Time will tell. <\/p>\n
\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a lot to love about the future of the Calgary Flames right now. With the prospect pool…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,5669,896,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-522245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-connor-zary","12":"tag-flames","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116290679323087201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}