Longtime Boston Bruins season-ticket holder Kevin Vautour asked the following question this morning as we were winding up our Zoom conversation with Ontario-based hockey historian Jeff Miclash. “Why is Nikita Zadorov on his fourth NHL team?” Kevin undersold his question: Zadorov’s six-year, $30 million contract with the Boston Bruins, inked on July 1, brings him to six NHL locales.
That fact alone makes the party narrative about the maturation curve of giant skaters thrown to the wolves straight from juniors a difficult sell.
You know how it goes: the physically imposing defenseman who could do nothing else against the kids is forced to buckle down and play the kids’ game versus guys. In this type of situation, the outcome is usually not pleasant. Not for years.
NHL teams who debut this type of player to the big leagues are almost always outside the playoffs, and patience is difficult to maintain three or four years into a career due to crash-and-burn situations or otherwise delayed development.
Chris Pronger, the only defenseman other than Bobby Orr to win the Hart Trophy since the NHL’s 1967 expansion, was traded two years into his NHL career.
You know how it goes: the physically imposing defenseman who could do nothing else against the kids is forced to buckle down and play the kids’ game versus guys. In this type of situation, the outcome is usually not pleasant. Not for years. NHL teams who debut this type of player
to the big leagues are almost always outside the playoffs, and patience is difficult to maintain three or four years into a career due to crash-and-burn situations or otherwise delayed development. Chris Pronger, the only defenseman other than Bobby Orr to win the Hart Trophy since the NHL’s 1967 expansion, was traded two years into his NHL career.
