Here’s every NHL team’s player to watch break out this year
By Paul Grant
Colorado Avalanche: Nikita Zadorov
It’s hard to believe Nikita Zadorov is still such a young feller; it seems like the 23-year-old Moscow native has been in the league for years. (And considering he has opened his career with terrible teams in Buffalo and the Avs when they were awful, it probably seems to him like it’s been at least a decade. Zing!)
But this is the season the big man (6-foot-5, 230 pounds) stands tall for the rising Avalanche. His totals last season – 7 goals and 13 assists in 77 games – were all career highs, and he will build off them this season while playing alongside fellow first-rounder and now-savvy-veteran Erik Johnson. Oh! And did we mention Zadorov is entering a contract year? So, there’s that.
He’s coming off shoulder surgery in the offseason, but it says here that he will bounce back from that to take the reins and help the Avs to another surprising (in a good way) season. He’s not going to get a lot of time on special teams, but a player can have an impact beyond just glory-inducing stats, people. C’mon, roll with it here. A stable minutes-muncher who likes to hit and block shots wins you games. Period.