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LD Nikita Zadorov (2013, 16th, BUF; traded to COL)

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It's pretty clear that Zadorov has motivation/consistency issues but I don't necessarily think he also has a bad attitude, which are two different things even if they often overlap. I'd love to see him return to juniors and really take pride in trying to be a dominant force, as I do not think he's really ready for the NHL. Still, it's hard to look at a kid who is listed in camp as 6'6" 244, who can skate and make plays, who didn't look totally over his head in a few games last year, and send him back to juniors when there's reason to question whether he'll thrive there.

I get the feeling that they just might keep him up even if they don't feel he's ready to be a night-in night-out NHLer if they feel they can develop him better hands-on. I'm wary of that, especially after Grigorenko, but I do think Zadorov would thrive more than Mikhail did, if not fully ready, because his physicality and mobility are much better. In the end, it doesn't seem to have even done Grigorenko any harm but it did burn off his ELC unnecessarily. Ted Nolan's known for demanding hard work from his players above all else but as much a hallmark of his coaching are the genuine personal relationships he forms with players. There's reason to think he might do well with Zadorov.

I hope it doesn't come down to that though, because it is at best not ideal. Hopefully he's either truly ready and sticks, or goes to juniors fully motivated to play a complete game out there every night. Based on what I've seen, he doesn't look ready unfortunately. I can't help but feel this is very similar to Kassian's post-draft career where he was physically dominant and somewhat lackadaisical. Prime examples of prospects you really wish could play in the AHL.
 
Nucks fan who watched a lot of London games last year for Horvat echoing the majority of what's been said about Zadorov thus far.
 
Haven't seen but a handful of Zadorov's games in London.

Anyway, I think you can't expect as engaged and active play in all zones when you're playing about 30 minutes or more. Not even at junior level. So it's understandable, when he focused more on o-zone play, the play on d-zone took damage. I think it would take almost a robot of junior player to be playing 100% competing and engaging in all zones playing half of the game. And personally I'm more than happy that he focused more on his offensive side of game, because he already has shown that he can be a stud defensively. Of course he has to find the right balance, but he's on a process of finding his identity as a d-man. In Russian and at start in London he considered himself totally as a defensive d-man. So it's a work in a process.

And the majority I have seen him in Buffalo, he hasn't looked disinterested or lazy (occasionally yes). So I just wonder what kind of results he would put up playing motivated and interested in OHL, if he was able to produce like that in London while playing disinterested and unmotivated.
 
A player being sent down after playing in the NHL will be down on himself. Combine that with having to play 30+ minutes because the Knights only played 5 D and it's easy to see why he was "lazy"
 
Another highly talented Russian ruined by the Canadian juniors along with Kabanov, Grigorenko etc.

Expect his less talented peers who stayed in Russia to be better than him in a year or two. Forget about Zadorov. He is a lost cause. He made a ruinous decision to leave Russia too early.
 
I think he needs to play in the Russia/KHL a year or two and only then try again in North America.
 
Peter25 said:
I think he needs to play in the Russia/KHL a year or two and only then try again in North America.
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How would that help him? He never got to develop his offensive game in Russia the first go around there. He made huge strides in that department last season in the OHL, don't need him taking steps backwards now that that part of his game has started to develop. He just needs to find balance in his game between D and O, rather than playing for one or the other.

Anyway, I think his odds of making the Sabres roster just got a slight boost with Pysyk sustaining a UBI against the Canes. At least with Pysyk out, there's no reason not to give him 9 games to see what he can do; we won't have to clear an extra roster spot to accommodate him.


Peter25 said:
Another highly talented Russian ruined by the Canadian juniors along with Kabanov, Grigorenko etc.

Expect his less talented peers who stayed in Russia to be better than him in a year or two. Forget about Zadorov. He is a lost cause. He made a ruinous decision to leave Russia too early.
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lol, OK. Yeah, Grigorenko, at 20, who's very legitimately fighting to win a roster spot in the NHL, is a lost cause. Definitely comparable to a 3rd round pick who never had anywhere near as much success in juniors and couldn't even crack an AHL roster.
 
JenniferHanson531 said:
As someone who watched each London game sans two last season, I vouch for 100% of Starry Knight's commentary. In fact, if one peruses the London thread inhabited by fans who missed very few games last year, there hasn't been a single dissenter from his opinion.

You are right that Zadorov's offensive numbers improved (doubled). But his icetime skyrocketed out of the team's necessity in rolling 5 D and playing 27-30 MPG. The increased production is partially attributable to the increased ice time and offensive zone starts relative to the prior season. Starry Knight (or any Knights fan) won't refute Zadorov's offensive progression, but will note that the stats overstate that progression to an extent. But the much larger emphasis Starry Knight is making, and Knights fans here universally agree with this, is Zadorov's defensive game stagnated and his compete level regressed. This was highlighted during the Edmonton/Guelph Memorial Cup games (they're available for purchase on Vimeo if you couldn't catch them). There were 4 goals in those 2 games that were primarily his fault. One of the Bertolucci goals comes to mind where Z was plain outhustled to the net by Bertolucci who was on the sideboards (Z was inside the faceoff dot) enabling Bertolucci to snipe a goal uncontested when the puck came to him while Z was solely accountable for him on the play. On all 4 goals, it came down to heart, and Z was beat. I won't inject some of the off-ice rumblings regarding his focus, but if true -- they weren't pretty. And I was far from the only fan to hear rumblings.

If I was ranking last year's Knights by heart/compete level (irrespective of ability), I would rank Zadorov dead last. I would also wager the vast majority of Knights fans would rank Zadorov dead last too. Ask this question on the Knights thread in the OHL forum, and I would be shocked if Zadorov didn't accrue at least 90% of the votes.

Ability-wise, I think Z can develop into a top pairing defenceman in the NHL. But he'll need a heart transplant (metaphorically-speaking, not literally). It's entirely possible playing in the NHL rather than OHL can do that for him, but only Z knows the answer.
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I understand. And thanks for the comment. I'm not saying you're wrong in your observations. I was just responding to the guy saying that he didn't progress at all in the season, then following it with he had gotten much better offensively. So, by definition, that means he progressed offensively.

And I'm saying that he might have something mentally lazy about him when playing in in London. He's physically too good for that level. And he seemed to be mentally lazy at points defensively in the NHL as well. But it's very possible at the same time that his play was affected by what was happening to him. He's someone who got sent down from the NHL after playing well and feeling like he belonged there. He then had to play an extreme amount of minutes that would wear anybody down, no matter his age.

It's very possible that he looked much worse than he would this year. But then again, it's possible he's just mentally lazy. Although I find the former more likely with a slight amount of the latter mixed in.
 
tsujimoto74 said:
How would that help him? He never got to develop his offensive game in Russia the first go around there. He made huge strides in that department last season in the OHL, don't need him taking steps backwards now that that part of his game has started to develop. He just needs to find balance in his game between D and O, rather than playing for one or the other.
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Never? Who do you think developed him? Space? Zadorov developed nearly entirely in Russia. Did the CHL help progress realising the potential of certain skills? Maybe, although we don't know if the same would have happened in Russia. Who actually developed the skills in the first place? His homeclub.
 
J17 Vs Proclamation said:
Never? Who do you think developed him? Space? Zadorov developed nearly entirely in Russia. Did the CHL help progress realising the potential of certain skills? Maybe, although we don't know if the same would have happened in Russia. Who actually developed the skills in the first place? His homeclub.
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His comments around the draft were that he was not allowed or encouraged to do much offensively by his Russian club, and that was the biggest adjustment/change he was dealing with coming to NA to play for London. That was in response to questions about how offensive ability and upside at the time.
 
Rob Paxon said:
His comments around the draft were that he was not allowed or encouraged to do much offensively by his Russian club, and that was the biggest adjustment/change he was dealing with coming to NA to play for London. That was in response to questions about how offensive ability and upside at the time.
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Russian hockey in general has problems developing adequate offensive defensemen for the modern requirements.
 
Needs to be loaned to Sweden or returned to junior, this is like with Grigorenko all over again.
 
wings5 said:
Needs to be loaned to Sweden or returned to junior, this is like with Grigorenko all over again.
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It's different. He's getting NHL practices in and I'd wager he gets a game eventually. They'll loan him somewhere in europe and that would be better than going to junior.

Another victim of the CHL-NHL agreement
 
http://www.buffalohockeybeat.com/sabres-prospect-nikita-zadorovs-future-could-be-decided-soon/


Here’s the issue: Zadorov, as a European, can’t be sent back to the London Knights, his junior team, because he doesn’t have a release from the Russian club that owns his rights. The Sabres don’t believe Zadorov’s ready to play in the NHL yet. But if they don’t keep him, they lose control of him to St. Petersburg, a KHL team. They clearly don’t want him developing out of their grasp thousands of miles away in Russia.
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Then the Sabres should just keep him and play him. I dont think they are trying to win any hockey games this year.
 
If Julius Honka can play in the AHL this year, couldn't Zadorov play in the AHL then?

Seems like a similar situation with the European team still having a contract in place with him.
 
If St. Petersberg terminates Zadorov's contract would he then be free to go to the AHL?
 
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