Mats Zuccarello

Mats Zuccarello
Date of birth	September 1, 1987
place of birth	Oslo , Norway
size	170 cm
Weight	73 kg
position	Right wing
number	# 36
Shot hand	Left
Career stations
2003-2008	Frisk Asker
2008-2010	MODO hockey
2010–2012	New York Rangers
2012-2013	HK Metallurg Magnitogorsk
2013-2019	New York Rangers
2019	Dallas Stars
since 2019	Minnesota Wild

Mats André Zuccarello Aasen (born September 1, 1987 in Oslo ) is a Norwegian ice hockey player of Italian descent who has been under contract with the Minnesota Wild from the National Hockey League since July 2019 and plays for them in the position of right winger .

Career

Mats Zuccarello began his career as an ice hockey player with Frisk Asker , for whose professional team he was active for five years from 2003 to 2008 in the GET-ligaen , the highest Norwegian league. His greatest success with the team was reaching the finals in the 2007/08 season, in which they were subject to the Storhamar Dragons . In the same season he was also voted the best Norwegian player in the league. The attacker then signed a contract with MODO Hockey Örnsköldsvik from the Swedish Elitserien and was able to convince especially in the 2009/10 season when he was the top scorer of the Elitserien and for that with the Guldhjälmen as the most valuable player of the Elitserien and with the Gullpucken as Norway's player of the Year was awarded.

Zuccarello in the jersey of the New York Rangers

In the summer of 2010, Zuccarello Aasen was committed by the New York Rangers , who first used him in the American Hockey League with their farm team Hartford Wolf Pack . After strong performances in the AHL, he was used for the first time with the New York Rangers during the 2010/11 season and scored his first goal for the Rangers in the game against the Carolina Hurricanes on January 5, 2011 . In the further course of the season he played parallel for the New York Rangers in the NHL and the meanwhile renamed Connecticut Whale farm team in the AHL. With both teams he was eliminated in the playoffs in the first round.

In June 2012 he left the Rangers and was signed by HK Metallurg Magnitogorsk , for which he scored a total of 32 scorer points in the 2012/13 season . After Metallurg was eliminated in the second KHL play-off round, Zuccarello returned to the New York Rangers. Following the 2012/13 season , his contract in New York was extended for another year. In the following season Zuccarello was finally able to establish himself as a top performer in the Rangers team and, with 59 points from 77 games, played the season with the highest points in his NHL career to date. In the play-offs he failed with his team only in the Stanley Cup final against the Los Angeles Kings and was the first Norwegian to take part in a final series in the NHL.

After his contract was renewed for another year in the summer of 2014, he agreed with the Rangers in the course of the 2014/15 season on a further extension of his current contract by four years at a rumored annual salary of 4.5 million US dollars . Over the course of the season, the attacker acted in an attacking formation with Rick Nash and helped his team with solid offensive performances to win the Presidents' Trophy for the most points after the main round. In the fifth game of the first play-off round against the Pittsburgh Penguins , Zuccarello was injured after the puck hit him in the head by a shot by his team-mate Ryan Callahan and was subsequently out with a serious head injury for the remainder of the play-offs. His successful return in the 2015/16 season brought him the Aftenposten gold medal in his home country of Norway and a second place in the election for Norway's Sportsman of the Year .

In the following three and a half seasons, the Scandinavian remained a reliable scorer in the Broadway Blushirts team . He always reached over 50 scorer points before he was handed over by the Rangers to the Dallas Stars in February 2019 . The Stars took over 70 percent of the salary of the expiring contract with Zuccarello, while the Rangers took over the remainder. As compensation for the change, New York received a conditional second-round vote for the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and a conditional third-round vote for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft . Both draft picks can become first-round voting rights in the respective drafts. For the conversion of the pick of the second round, Dallas must move into the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs 2019 and Zuccarello is used in at least 50 percent of the games in the first two rounds; this did not happen. The third-round voting right can also become a first-round voting right, provided the attacker signs a new contract in Dallas. This was also not fulfilled, as the attacker joined the Minnesota Wild as a free agent in July 2019 and signed a five-year contract there, which is said to bring him an average annual salary of six million US dollars.

International

For Norway Zuccarello took Aasen at junior level at the Under-18 World Youth Championship in 2004 , the Under-18 Junior B World Cup 2005 and the Under-20 World Youth Championship in 2006 and the U20 Junior B World Cup 2007 in part. In the senior sector, he was in his country's squad at the A-World Championships in 2008 , 2009 and 2010 as well as at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . He also represented his home country at the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2016 World Cup .

He also represented the Europe team at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey , where he finished second with the team.

Achievements and Awards

2008 Norwegian runner-up with the Frisk Tigers 2008 Best Norwegian GET-league player 2010 top scorer in the Elitserien 2010 Guldhjälmen

2010 Gullpucken 2012 participation in the AHL All-Star Classic 2015 Aftenposten gold medal

International

• 2005 Promotion to the top division at the U18 Junior World Championship of Division I.
• 2016 second place at the World Cup of Hockey

Career statistics

Status: end of the 2019/20 season

				Regular season							Playoffs
season	team	league		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2004/05	Frisk Asker	UPC leagues		1	0	0	0		0		-	-	-	-	-	-
2005/06	Frisk Asker	UPC leagues		21st	5	3	8th		12		4th	0	0	0		2
2006/07	Frisk Asker	GET leagues		43	34	25th	59		36		7th	4th	4th	8th		2
2007/08	Frisk Asker	GET leagues		33	24	40	64		48		15th	12	15th	27		24
2008/09	MODO hockey	Elitserien		35	12	28	40	+10	38		-	-	-	-	-	-
2009/10	MODO hockey	Elitserien		55	23	41	64	+6	62		-	-	-	-	-	-
2010/11	Connecticut Whale	AHL		36	13	16	29	+2	16		2	1	1	2	+1	4th
2010/11	New York Rangers	NHL		42	6th	17th	23	+3	4th		1	0	0	0	± 0	2
2011/12	Connecticut Whale	AHL		37	12	24	36	+5	22nd		-	-	-	-	-	-
2011/12	New York Rangers	NHL		10	2	1	3	± 0	6th		-	-	-	-	-	-
2012/13	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	KHL		44	11	17th	28	+5	30th		7th	2	2	4th	-2	10
2012/13	New York Rangers	NHL		15th	3	5	8th	+10	8th		12	1	6th	7th	-2	4th
2013/14	New York Rangers	NHL		77	19th	40	59	+11	32		25th	5	8th	13	+7	20th
2014/15	New York Rangers	NHL		78	15th	34	49	+17	45		5	0	2	2	+1	0
2015/16	New York Rangers	NHL		81	26th	35	61	+2	34		5	1	1	2	-2	4th
2016/17	New York Rangers	NHL		80	15th	44	59	+15	26th		12	4th	3	7th	± 0	16
2017/18	New York Rangers	NHL		80	16	37	53	-10	36		-	-	-	-	-	-
2018/19	New York Rangers	NHL		46	11	26th	37	–11	24		-	-	-	-	-	-
2018/19	Dallas Stars	NHL		2	1	2	3	+3	0		13	4th	7th	11	+2	6th
2019/20	Minnesota Wild	NHL		65	15th	22nd	37	–9	18th		4th	0	1	1	-1	0
Total OPC / GET leagues				98	63	68	131		96		26th	16	19th	35		28
Elitserien total				90	35	69	104	+16	100		-	-	-	-	-	-
AHL total				73	25th	40	65	+7	38		2	1	1	2	+1	4th
NHL overall				576	129	263	392	+31	233		77	15th	28	43	+5	52

International

Represented Norway at: U18 Junior World Championship 2004 Division I U18 Junior World Championship 2005 U20 Junior World Championship 2006 Division I U20 Junior World Championship 2007 World Championship 2008 Qualifying tournament for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

World Championship 2009 2010 Winter Olympics World Championship 2010 2014 Winter Olympics World Championship 2016 Qualifying tournament for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games

Represented Team Europe at: World Cup of Hockey 2016

year	team	event	result		Sp	T	V	Pt	+/-	SM
2004	Norway	U18 World Cup	10th place		6th	0	2	2	-3	8th
2005	Norway	U18 World Championship Div. I.	1st place		5	2	3	5	+1	6th
2006	Norway	U20 World Cup	10th place		6th	0	2	2	-5	4th
2007	Norway	U20 World Cup Div. I.	5th place		5	2	5	7th	-1	2
2008	Norway	WM	8th place		7th	1	0	1	-5	2
2009	Norway	Olympic qualification	1st place		3	0	0	0	± 0	0
2009	Norway	WM	8th place		6th	3	0	3	± 0	8th
2010	Norway	Olympia	10th place		4th	1	2	3	+1	2
2010	Norway	WM	9th place		6th	3	1	4th	-1	6th
2014	Norway	Olympia	12th place		3	0	0	0	-2	2
2016	Norway	WM	10th place		7th	1	2	3	-2	4th
2016	Norway	Olympic qualification	1st place		3	2	3	5	+2	0
2016	Team Europe	World cup	2nd place		6th	1	3	4th	+2	4th
Juniors overall					22nd	4th	12	16	-8th	20th
Men overall					45	12	11	23	-5	28

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; ¹  play-downs / relegation )

Web links

Commons : Mats Zuccarello  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Player biography on the Minnesota Wild website
• Mats Zuccarello at legendsofhockey.net (English)
• Mats Zuccarello at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ hockeytime.net, Intervista all'italo norvegese Mats Zuccarello
2. ↑ New York Rangers: Zuccarello gets first goal in style to sink Hurricanes ( Memento of the original from February 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ nhl.com Rangers' Zuccarello, 1st Norwegian to reach Stanley Cup finals, creating hockey buzz at home
4. ↑ nhl.com Rangers, Zuccarello agree on new contract
5. ↑ nydailynews.com Mats Zuccarello reveals he had brain contusion, lost ability to speak after NY Rangers winger was hit in head with puck