TOTW (89) Zuccarello Player Review

Preface: I have owned both his 87 base and his 88 WCPOTG. I love zuke as a player in real life, but in this game I couldn't make those cards work. He got knocked around way to easily and was slower than his stats would say, on top of that his shot was fairly weak. All factors in him not producing for me at all.

Synergies activated - Team: CG, 1T, TT, B, T Individual: DR

Role: 2LW, PK, PP

Stats: GP - 58 G - 25 A - 29 P - 54 Plus/Minus - +63

Skating: 9.3/10. Wow is he fast and now it shows true to form. With DR and T buffs he actually has reasonable balance. He will still get killed by big hard hitting dmen, but he can stay on his feet from a bump now. Agility...you can figure skate around dmen.

Shooting: 8.7/10 in close and in the slot he can pick corners. He won't be able to pick corners from the top of the circle. He has a strong 1Ter but isn't a guarantee goal.

Hands: 9.5/10. The dude can pass, unreal. He has backhand sauced passes from behind the net to the point over multiple sticks for 1Ter goals. He has great dekes that make the dmen bite, the only downside is he doesn't have a huge reach to make the dmen bite so hard they are completely out of the play.

Checking: 6.5/10 let's be real, you didn't buy this card to crush people. With DR and T he can bump guys enough to loosen the puck.

Defense: 9/10 He is in great position, and more importantly has a great stick. Only limitation is his short reach. I have gotten countless breakaways and odd man rushes from him intercepting d to d passes.

Overall, finally a zuke that is playable and he scores points for me in bunches. I play him on the LW so he is on his strong side for setting up his linemates, his strongest atrributes are his speed and playmaking. He can deke goalies silly on breakaways and is reliable defensively.

In summary, Zuke is finally a fun card to play with. I got him for 20k during the crash and he is one of my best value players on my squad. To give a comparison, my legend Bure has 37 Goals and 56 points in the same amount of games as Zuke for 20 times the cost.