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

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Kshahdoo said:
And CHL has produced, how many of them?
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None if your looking just at russians, but neither has Russia. In general a ton of elite defenders come out of the CHL, and the best Russian defensive prospect of the last decade is a USHL/WHL product. And there are two Russian defenders that get over 20 minutes a game right now, one is Markov who was almost a teenager when the wall fell and Kulikov who played in the Q, so where are these domestically produced d men who aren't ruined by the CHL?
 
I'd seriously question attribution of Zadorov's apparent struggles to coming to North America or any mishandling. He's improved tremendously as an offensive player since coming over, which is far from a given to have happened if he hadn't come over. He's a tools without the toolbox player as well as being a big play/big risk guy. It's hard to ever be confident how such a player will pan out just like it's hard to place blame if he doesn't. Not to mention he's still so young a defenseman that he could easily still become a good top 4 defenseman, which is what he projected to be. Some people are really jumping the gun here.
 
Fantomas said:
Looks that way. Sad to watch this, because Zads was pretty good at the WJC a while back.
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Are you serious? I've watched every game he's played for the Avs org, he's fine. He plays big minutes on a garbage team as a 20 year old in the AHL, he's played well in the NHL. There's nothing to judge in his game, he just needs time.
 
tigervixxxen said:
Are you serious? I've watched every game he's played for the Avs org, he's fine. He plays big minutes on a garbage team as a 20 year old in the AHL, he's played well in the NHL. There's nothing to judge in his game, he just needs time.
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I hope you're right!
 
He's a big kid, he has all the physical tools to be a top 4 D man in the NHL. Needs more time. But anyone writing him off at this stage of his career would be making a premature decision.
 
UsernameWasTaken said:
He's 20 and he was drafted in 2013. It's a bit early to write him off.
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well, only by those with an agenda...

of course when he's an NHL regular playing and contributing those same agenda people will argue the CHL had nothing to do with his development, he would have succeeded regardless of development route. Such is the nature of hf gobbledygook that fills these threads on a daily basis.
 
Paxon said:
I'd seriously question attribution of Zadorov's apparent struggles to coming to North America or any mishandling. He's improved tremendously as an offensive player since coming over, which is far from a given to have happened if he hadn't come over. He's a tools without the toolbox player as well as being a big play/big risk guy. It's hard to ever be confident how such a player will pan out just like it's hard to place blame if he doesn't. Not to mention he's still so young a defenseman that he could easily still become a good top 4 defenseman, which is what he projected to be. Some people are really jumping the gun here.
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Yeah. If anything playing in CHL improved him. He took big leaps offensively after coming over. I think the problem actually was that he didn't stay in CHL and developed slowly. He really shouldn't have been in the NHL until this year. Same with Grigorenko, although he might turn out fine after all, but this jojo'ing up and down between NHL team, junior and AHL is not good for any prospect. I don't know if it's the NHL clubs that are doing this or if it's the players' agents that are pushing for them to play in the NHL before they are ready but it's bad for development.

Seems like many russians are just in a too big of a hurry to get to the NHL. The one player that actually came over and really took it slowly and let himself develop was Slava Voynov. He played three full seasons in the AHL before getting a sniff in the NHL and he turned out great. If more russian players had that patience then maybe this "problem" wouldn't exist.

You see a guy like William Nylander who probably could've played in the NHL post-draft but instead spent 74 games in the AHL before getting a shot in the NHL. That hasn't hurt him at all, it has developed him and let him maintain his confidence. That's the way to go. Even if you have the talent to play in the NHL right away you might not have the physical or mental maturity to do it, and that's almost more important. Patience is a virtue.
 
dasaybz said:
What should they have done?
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They should have slow-cooked him in the OHL rather than doing what they did by having him play on last year's crap-fest lineup. Let him dominate, refine his play, continue to get reps and grow his confidence instead of putting him in a situation where he was over his head many nights, didn't build his confidence and certainly didn't work on refining his game.

That said, the kid still has another year of AHL eligibility and continues to progress. He's 20. He'll be fine.
 
The Rampage are a bit of a tire fire right now. They gave up 8 goals in two games over the weekend and Zadorov wasn't on the ice for any of them. It's just not a very good team, possibly the worst in the AHL at the moment.

He looked much better and more composed defensively in his most recent call up, and he was going against the other teams best players paired with Beauchemin.
 
Chainshot said:
They should have slow-cooked him in the OHL rather than doing what they did by having him play on last year's crap-fest lineup. Let him dominate, refine his play, continue to get reps and grow his confidence instead of putting him in a situation where he was over his head many nights, didn't build his confidence and certainly didn't work on refining his game.

That said, the kid still has another year of AHL eligibility and continues to progress. He's 20. He'll be fine.
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Wasn't the consensus that he wasn't gaining anything by being in the OHL? I think he was just in an rough spot where he really should have been in Roch, and the rules wouldn't allow it. Many people thought that he belonged in the NHL at that point, heck Risto was there already.
 
I almost feel bad for him and Rantanen, having to play on that crap-sack team that the Rampage is right now. Then again, Zads has seen more than his fair share of bad teams already from being in Buffalo.

Glad he is being allowed to get big minutes somewhere, although it must be frustrating to be on a team where just about everyone is worse than you are and you can't humanly play every minute of the game to make sure their mistakes don't cost you games.
 
Chainshot said:
They should have slow-cooked him in the OHL rather than doing what they did by having him play on last year's crap-fest lineup. Let him dominate, refine his play, continue to get reps and grow his confidence instead of putting him in a situation where he was over his head many nights, didn't build his confidence and certainly didn't work on refining his game.

That said, the kid still has another year of AHL eligibility and continues to progress. He's 20. He'll be fine.
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There are two people to blame for his progress: Zadorov and his agent.

He and his agent refused to go back to London stating he would go back to Russia instead since Rochester wasn't an option last year.

These agents do more damage then good sometimes. Look at the Drouin situation. Just went back with his head tucked between his legs. Look at baseball's Ian Desmond. agent had him turn down $98 million from Washington and he ends up signing for $8 million with Texas.
 
flashsabre said:
There are two people to blame for his progress: Zadorov and his agent.

He and his agent refused to go back to London stating he would go back to Russia instead since Rochester wasn't an option last year.

These agents do more damage then good sometimes. Look at the Drouin situation. Just went back with his head tucked between his legs. Look at baseball's Ian Desmond. agent had him turn down $98 million from Washington and he ends up signing for $8 million with Texas.
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We just discussed this very situation (Zadorov and London vs Russia) on another thread. Be careful what you wish for when you bring that up.
 
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