Navigation
Part 1 – Offseason Training, Max Ivanov, Toughest NHL Moment, Trade to Colorado
Part 2 – Moving teams, Clobbering people in the NHL, Easy/Hard players to play against, Contract Demands, Zadorov’s Education
Part 3 – 2021 World Hockey Championship, Olympics, Taxes and Escrow, Barkov, NHL game management, Zadorov’s injuries
Part 4 – Best players in the NHL, MacKinnon, Keith, Vasilevskiy
Part 5 – NHL superstitions, Zadorov’s pre-game routine
The Original interview in Russian:
Part 2 – Moving teams, Clobbering people in the NHL, Easy/Hard players to play against, Contract Demands, Zadorov’s Education
• After you realized that you were in COL, what were your first thoughts? Were you thinking about how to bring your stuff over?
o Joking: I was first thinking about how to bring my car over. I just ordered a BMW X6. It was my childhood dream car. I finally made enough money, ordered it, waited for it, and it was supposed to arrive in Buffalo. I had no idea what to do with it.
o Seriously though, my first thought was that I didn't have a place to train. It was already the end of June, and I was planning on flying out to Buffalo mid-July. At that point in time, we had a lot of guys fly over to Buffalo train/skate and use the team’s facilities over there. My wife and I were just getting ready to fly there. As a result, I had no idea what to do or who to train with. I had no connections over in Colorado and no idea how to organize it all. I was only 20 years old, and in buffalo everything was served up to us on a silver platter. We just came to Buffalo, trained with Buffalo’s strength and conditioning coach, Buffalo’s skating coach and so on. It was very easy and very straightforward. I had to figure it all out by myself because Colorado didn’t have such a system set up.
o Eventually after our honeymoon we flew back to Buffalo. We got in our new car and drove all the way to Colorado. I got to break in my new car with 1500 km on the odometer.
• You need to have a special skill to hit people the way you do, you need to pick your positioning, angle, and catch someone off guard. Where did you learn to clobber that way?
o I get asked that question often, and it’s not something I ever studied. It has something to do with my hockey IQ and my feel for the game. I leave space for the forward to tempt him into it. I wait for the forward to start angling me towards the middle of the ice. I give him a little more space by moving my stick slightly backwards, then I hit the breaks and meet him head on.
o (My notes: You can tell he loves hitting people, he just gets giddy when talking about it) In the middle of the ice, I can tell a player is distracted when he is looking to make a pass. I see it from the movement of his eyes. Other times players simply have their heads down. As soon as I notice it, I use it to make a hit. That’s one of the worst things for forwards. In north America there’s a saying called “take a hit to make a play”, sacrifice yourself for the play. That’s usually when you get the best most devastating hits. Only half a second after the player makes the play, he gets himself all extended, he puts all of himself on the line to make the pass, and he gets leveled.
• It seems like that’s your favorite part.
o Yes, but don't think that I’m the only one like that. I got clobbered quite a few times myself.
• Did you watch any players so that you can study how they hit?
o Not really, I always watched the highlights though. I absolutely loved Scott Stevens, even though I think that probably 80% of his hits would end up in suspensions in today's NHL. *Zadorov mentions the hits Stevens made on Lindros, and Kozlov*. The hit on Kozlov is probably clearest suspension, it was 3 seconds after he got rid of the puck, then he got blindsided by Stevens. I also watched Kasper play, and many others.
• What about Russian players? Do you have a favorite(hitter)?
o Alex Ovechkin, I loved when he just got into the NHL, and terrorized defensemen with his physical play.
o Marveled about Ovi’s clean hit on Jagr, the interviewer mentioned it first.
• Who’s the easiest and the hardest player in the NHL to hit?
o The easiest hit to make is usually against 3rd/4th liners. That’s because of their slightly lower hockey IQ, the way they see the ice, and their general awareness of the developing play.
o The hardest. I think that McDavid would be extremely difficult to hit because of his speed. *joking* I am not sure if anyone has even tried to clobber McDavid. That’s because everyone's scared that he would just turn them inside out and burn them with his speed. That way they would end up on the wrong side of the highlights reel, and no one wants that.
o 2nd liners constantly keep their head up so it’s much more difficult to deliver a crushing hit.
o Kane always makes a pass before you hit him. He’s shifty but you still must try and hit him, so that he knows he doesn’t have much time and space and that a hit is coming. A bit of a game within the game.
• There are currently ongoing contract negotiations on your new contract with CHI. Is CHI your preferred destination?
o Of course, Chicago has my rights, so I can only negotiate with them.
• Where are the negotiations at?
o We had ongoing discussions; they have stopped for now. We agreed to wait until after the expansion draft. At which point we will resume talks.
• Right before our interview, I saw a post on Instagram from one of the dirtiest reporters that was saying that “Zadorov thinks too much of himself and is asking for $6M per in his negotiations”. He was criticizing your mobility, your game and so on, how do you respond to that?
o First, let’s talk about the $6M. A Chicago reporter, Mark Lazerus, was the one to write about it. He said I was asking for 6 while I was actually asking for 10! Joking aside, it’s a complete lunacy. That’s just a journalist who plucked a number out of the sky. Why did he say $5.85M? I have no idea; it didn’t happen though. How did they calculate I can ask for $6M? Guys that score 40/50 points a season don’t get paid as much. I know my worth. If I go to arbitration there will be players I will use as comparables, and base my worth off of their contracts. My worth is not $6M. The Russian media only got wind of this story now because it’s always a bit behind. We had that story come out about a month ago.
o As for my response to that reporter. I will answer in the same manner another wise man on your podcast responded. After I leave a packed united center, sit in my Porsche and drive home to my beautiful wife and wonderful family. I don’t even look at the opinions/articles of these people.
• If you were offered a max contract with top pairing minutes, 1PP, 1PK everything you want here in Russia, would you come back?
o No, I wouldn’t. First of all, no one is offering that to you. They’ll let you play the first game on the first pair, first PP, first PK. If you play like #### they’ll send you down.
o The NHL is something else. It’s the best league in the world and it has the best players in the world. When I grew up over there, more specifically when I was about 17-18, I was of the opinion that I would’ve played for Toronto for free. Just because of the atmosphere, the fun, and the market that Toronto is. Now that I understand what type of market it is, I might have a slightly different opinion. However, I have such a love for the game that I would’ve played in the NHL for free.
• Do you not want to come back only because of the NHL or because of the way of life you have over there?
o Mostly because of the NHL. I love living in the US, but I also love living in Moscow. I am an easy going person, so it’s easy for me to adapt to different countries and cultures.
• In all your interviews you always come across as a very educated person. Did your parents push you towards getting good grades and so on?
o My parents were demanding throughout my high school. I haven’t had a single C grade throughout my high school.
• What about university?
o You know how it works. My Notes: in Russia you pay for your grades in university, they reflect whether you paid off your profs and not your level of knowledge.
o I took sports management, now I have a diploma I can hang on the wall. That said, I think that my real life knowledge and my experience in the NHL are more valuable than studying the subject from a book. The management side can split into coaching and general management. Coaching is quite a demanding job, you need to be able to read people well, work with kids, know biology, and know medicine to a degree. As a GM, you need to be more of a good lawyer and a good salesman.
• Asked about politics, and Panarin… I am going to skip that part.