Trevor Zegras returns to Anaheim for the first time at the top of his game. Now, can he master playing center?

ANAHEIM, Calif. ― Tuesday’s practice at the Honda Center was a little weird for Trevor Zegras. For the first time in his NHL career, the forward was using the visitors’ locker room and bench.

Almost nine months ago, Zegras was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks in a deal that took nearly two years to come to fruition. On the Monday before the NHL draft, he was shipped to the Flyers in exchange for forward Ryan Poehling, the 45th pick in the 2025 draft, and a fourth-round pick in 2026.

The shift back east — he was born and raised in Bedford, N.Y. — has reignited the 24-year-old’s game.

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After two injury-plagued seasons that saw him shift from center to wing and posted a combined 47 points in 88 games, this season, he has 54 points across 66 games. His 22 goals are one shy of his career high, set during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons, as are his eight power-play goals, with nine as his high from 2021-22. His 19 power-play points are a career high. Zegras is on pace for career highs of 27 goals and 67 points as of Wednesday.

“I mean, maybe,” he said when asked if the trade was needed on his end to restart his career.

“You can’t go back and change things. You can just, I guess, learn from them, grow from them. I think I’m a different hockey player and person for having gone through that stuff that I went through.

“I don’t know if I would necessarily change it. I’m in an unbelievable spot with unbelievable guys, and I love Philadelphia and everything that it has to offer, living in the city. We have amazing fans and everything.”

Zegras came to Philly with the expectation of playing down the middle again. As Flyers general manager Danny Brière said back in June: “We hope he can help in the center position, because that’s obviously an area that we could improve.” But Brière also said that if coach Rick Tocchet “decides that he’s better suited on the wing, and there’s other guys that play better in the middle, he’s going to decide.”

And wing is where Zegras has been for most of the year — except for the past five games. Although the GM told The Inquirer on March 7 that the team “felt he’s been a little better on the wing this year,” an hour later, he was centering a line.

It’s a small sample size, but Zegras has stepped into the center role and hasn’t looked too out of place. According to Natural Stat Trick, at five-on-five across those five games, he has 12 individual shot attempts, including four high-danger chances, eight scoring chances, one goal, and three points (he also has a power-play assist).

When he is on the ice at five-on-five, the Flyers have just 46.85% of the shot attempts, but they have more shots on goal (36-30) and are outscoring the opposition, 4-2. But there’s a balance as he has the best expected goals for among the team’s forwards (3.23), but the worst expected goals against (3.75).

“It’s been good,” Zegras said of shifting to center. “Still think I can do a little bit better on the faceoffs, but I think other than that, I feel like I kind of like where my games at through the middle.”

The faceoffs have definitely been a struggle. Entering this season, he’s never won more than 43.8% of his draws in a season, and this year he’s at 31.6%. The past five games are worse at 26.27%. It’s part of why he leads the forwards in on-the-fly starts, or times he came on the ice during live play rather than at a faceoff.

“He’s an offensive guy, so I try to get him mostly on the offensive part [of the ice]. Yeah, I’m constantly doing that, but there’s going to be some times where he’s going to have to dig in there for us and take a D-zone faceoff, just sometimes you can’t protect that,” Tocchet said.

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While Zegras continues to work on his defensive zone structure and faceoffs, Tocchet said he may put another center out with him in the third period for support. He has been playing well when paired alongside Owen Tippett.

According to Natural Stat Trick, in 376 minutes in tandem together this season, the pair have outscored opponents (21-14) — 10 goals are from high-danger spots — posted more shot attempts, shots on goal, and scoring chances, and have 54.25% of the expected goal share.

“It’s awesome. He’s so creative with the puck. He sees the ice really well, and I think the longer we’ve kind of played together, especially with him at center … he’s closer,” Tippett said.

“I think we’re getting better at our reads and support. But yeah, he’s just a crafty player with a lot of skill. He sees the ice really well. And a lot of the conversations we’ve had have been, give him room to make those plays and try and find the areas that you know where he’s looking.”

The duo will be skating alongside Nikita Grebenkin again as the Flyers try to stay in the playoff chase. They face a Ducks team on Wednesday (10 p.m., NBCSP) that is first in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division but has just three points more than the Flyers.

After everything Zegras, who had two goals in the Flyers’ win against Anaheim at Xfinity Mobile Arena in January, has gone through, does it give him a little extra juice for Wednesday?

“I mean, maybe,” he said. “I think it’ll be just cooler to be back. It’ll be weird, playing on the other bench and warming up on the other side — even playing them last time was a little strange — but I feel like so much time has gone by. It’s more like it will be a cool experience than a chip on my shoulder, I guess.

“Yeah, it’ll be like a motivating game, but I think it’ll be a good experience than anything else.”