Zherdev Making An Impact

Michael Farber at SI.com looks at the players who, point for point and dollar for dollar, have had the most profound impact since joining new teams in 2008-09, including Nikolai Zherdev.

Farber, who note's Zherdev's hands are as good as anybody's in the league, is impressed with his plus-minus rating of +9 after going -11, -13, -19, -9 in his first four seasons in the NHL.

Farber adds that 'Zherdev will never be the backbone of any team, but he could carve out a career as a 30 goals (his single-season best is 27) and 70 points per-season winger.'

...despite struggling of late Zherdev has been everything and more then was expected. Could you imagine how much better he would be if Renney actually opened up the offense?