Nikita Zadorov Comes to Boston + Bruins Development Camp Takeaways

Nikita Zadorov Comes to Boston + Bruins Development Camp Takeaways

big zatty arrives in Boston and we’re talking about how the kids looked at development Camp last week you’re locked on Bruins your daily podcast on the Boston Bruins part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] day what is up Bruins fans and welcome back to the locked on Boston Bruins podast podcast I’m your host Ian McLaren and this is a Daily Show where we discuss all things spoked be today is Tuesday July 9th and I want to thank you so much for making lock on Bruins part of your daily routine free and available on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube We’re part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day and today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more All Summer Long FanDuel is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long visit fanduel.com to get started and before we get started a quick reminder you can find the podcast on social media at lock NHL Bruins and you can find me my dad jokes hockey thoughts ATC McLaren I am a lifelong Bruins fan I’ve been covering this team for various outlets for 20 years or so worked full time for the score as a full-time hockey News writer and uh been hosting this podcast since 2019 and speaking of those digits Nikita zadorov arrived in Boston on Monday and was introduced by general manager Don Sweeney with a number 91 Jersey and why 91 well he has worn number 16 most of his career including with the Colorado Avalanche Chicago Blackhawks and the Calgary Flames but he couldn’t use it in Vancouver it was retired for Trevor Lindon and he can’t use it in Boston because that is uh retired as well for Rick Middleton so y 91 it’s an upside down 16 and he will become just the second player in Bruins history to wear number 91 of course the previous player was Mark seard who played for the Bruins from uh 2006 07 to20 11 before his career was sadly cut short due to injuries and svard was actually one of zadorov coaches with the Calgary Flames before he was traded to the Vancouver Canucks I’m sure uh saard giving zadorov his Blessing to where number 91 I saw some suggestion that oh maybe it’s disrespectful or 91 should have been retired I mean Mark seard was a fan favorite to be sure part of another huge uh free agent signing day you recall 2006 the Bruins signed both Mark saard and zido charara on uh free agent Day this year a lindome and zadorov we wonder if it will amount to the same kind of success down the road and zadorov really seems to be thinking so because he said he signed with the Bruins because he wants to have his best chance to win a championship a five or sorry six-year $30 million contract a five million aav he said he’s really invested in what he does putting his heart into everything and right now he’s here for six years and wants to put his heart into being a bruan and trying to win a Stanley Cup he’s already endeared himself to the fans by making it known he doesn’t want to be called Big Z where he’s been called elsewhere people are calling him zatty um my suggestion what I’m sticking with is Big zatty you get the big because he is a big man but not the uh the Z specifically you go with the zatty it also has a bit of a New England tie in with uh Adam Sandler of course starring in Big Daddy all those years ago uh if the Bruins of course are going to win a Stanley Cup in the next handful of years zadorov will almost certainly play a key role in that general manager Don Sweeney saying back on July 1st that the presence he brings is important to them he’s going to play a lot of tough four minutes in the playoffs against top guys and his certainly his game seems to grow and he’s able to step up in these big moments now uh his ties to Boston go far back in his NHL career he said his first goal came against the Bruins in just his second game with the sabes and um he remembered Brad Marshon now captain of the Bruins being on the ice for that and taking the minus so he’s going to be sure to remind him of that when uh when they meet uh Marshon David poso Charlie McAvoy were among the first to reach out to zadorov when he was signed which is a sign of good uh good leadership there for the Bruins zorov has also worked with Jim Montgomery in the past when he was coaching at the University of Denver and zadorov played for the aves Montgomery would host players to skate with the pioneers during the off season and uh he got a strong impression of his future coach uh having lindome come on he said zadorov said it definitely helps when your friend signs with the same team uh he’s excited for him a really good addition excited to have him on his team once again for sure of course they were teammates in Calgary and then with uh the Canucks um so sidorov making it uh clear that he wants to be in Boston he did not have to come and and travel up and uh make an appearance but he wanted to he jumped on the Instagram was answering some questions of course he calls the US home right now as he has been rather outspoken about Russia’s efforts in the Ukraine well their War campaign in the Ukraine and uh he does not feel comfortable going home at the moment uh which I fully respect which is really cool of him to be outspoken like that where other Russian nhlers uh quite frankly have not so zadorov introduced by general manager Don Sweeney number 91 I’m okay with it um Mark zard wore that number so well uh had his name on the Stanley Cup hopefully zadorov can as well and uh again I’m sure sard would sign off on it having coached zadorov and knowing what kind of player and person that he is all right coming up as the podcast continues we’re going to look back at last week’s development camp and talk about a few players who stood out and who we may see on the NHL roster at some point in the near or distant future I love me some sports and I love them so much I never want them to stop but now that the NHL and NBA seasons are 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Amazon Fire TV channels app all right so we have yet to touch on a development camp and I’m GNA be completely honest here I don’t get super fussed about development Camp because a lot of it quite frankly is guys that we probably won’t see up at the NHL level um with some really deep cut prospects and the Bruins Prospect pool as it stands is not really as deep as some other clubs in fact you’re going to see a lot of prospect pool rankings coming out over the summer including on the locked on NHL prospects uh show and I’ve already seen the Bruins 30th out of 32 32nd out of 32 uh the prospect pool is pretty thin after the likes of Matt ptra who we talk talk about here in a moment Fabian lysel Mason lorai you know that’s pretty much the extent of what there is to get excited about and all three of those guys could be on the NHL roster uh come opening night what about the future well the Bruins of course went out and made a deal with the Ottawa Senators to acquire a first round pick here in 2024 and they use that to select Dean louro and he was at development Camp all six foot seven of them stands out immediately uh by all accounts he’s got strong skating impressive reach a sharp wrist shot and you can see glimpses hopes dreams of developing along the same lines as a Tage Thompson in Buffalo and uh Adam McQuade current Player Development coordinator uh was quoted by Conor Ryan in boston.com as saying obviously it’s hard not to notice louro at his size quote his calmness in and around the net good hands just a big frame when you look at him he’s still such a young kid you probably just get more of an appreciation when you’re on the ice for how big he is and how smooth he is with the puck um end quote he will need to add some more muscle to his huge frame uh he came up short in a few battle drills against smaller I’ll be it more season prospects um getting stronger is a priority for him as he gets ready to play at Boston College in the fall but as Conor Ryan noted it’s easy to see why the Bruins were enamored with lur no’s high ceiling when they selected him with the 25th pick um Bruins fans expecting him to be kind of one and done in college probably need to temper expectations he’s probably um two three years away from uh being in consideration to jump up to the Bruins you look at Tage Thompson’s uh trajectory took him a handful of years to really pop and could be a similar trajectory here for L luto but the potential rewards are uh very tantilizing indeed another guy who stepped up um was Oscar jelic and he’s a guy that could quite realistically slot into the middle six at some point uh down the road he was a fifth round pick in 2021 he had a breakout sophomore season with the Boston College Eagles last year with 42 points in 41 games in a top six role he’s not the biggest guy 5 foot 10 but uh Conor Ryan noted he regularly popped throughout development Camp playing a fast and slippery game while routinely putting himself in grade a ice and and McQuade of Y said he may have had one of the best growth seasons of the group he was playing with cutter gotier who was a fifth overall pick in 2022 uh he’s probably not coming back but uh he should still get some opportunities to grow a big transition coming over the first year from Europe smaller ice little things like that McQuade said his consistency was the main thing he played well on a nightly basis uh go of course is a really good player but so is Oscar and there’s no doubt in the Bruins Minds that he can replicate what he did this year uh coming into this next season so that is uh really encouraging and that’s a guy who they might be able to get something out of here as um as Seasons go on uh which would be great from a fifth round pick another guy making strides is Riley Duran a sixth round pick in 2020 um he’s got a high motor a heavy shot and he’s looking to make the push for Boston’s roster during training camp but it will be a little tougher considering he will have to beat out the likes of Johnny beer Justin brazzo Marcus stelic Max Jones righ tufty for a regular role in the bottom six but he’s got the confidence going in uh Providence Bruins bench boss Ryan mugel stressed that Duran has continued to impress the organization’s development staff since making the jump from Providence College to Providence Bruins in March uh mugel said he was a lot better than what he was expecting uh they were surprised at how well his game has grown how confident he was in the AHL uh he was excellent for the Providence Bruins a little bit of ahead of where they thought he would be at this time and they’re excited about his growth and development as a person his work ethic and being a great teammate so that’s a guy to keep an eye on down in Providence for sure this upcoming season what about younger guys who could and should make an impact at the NHL level well we’ll discuss discuss that here as the podcast continues a participant at development Camp was Matt ptra who is coming off major shoulder surgery and was not able to play down the stretch after appearing in 35 games for the Boston Bruins last season as kind of a surprise Edition uh I had said regularly that I thought he would be back in the OHL last season he uh impressed in training camp earned a spot and is progressing well from that offse or sorry that midseason shoulder surgery he has put on between eight and nine pounds of muscle so far this off season and that was a big area of growth for him uh to be more strong on the puck he did not participate in the scrimmage to end development camp but uh you know not yet ready to take to take contact but ultimately they decided to keep him off the ice just to make sure he was on the right track with his recovery and that he can be ready for a training camp no setbacks uh according to Adam McQuade they knew coming in that they were going to try and keep him away from contact but it was a great week for him he enjoyed getting back out there with the guys and um it was nice to be with guys closer to his age a lot expected of ptra here in the upcoming season now that’s not to say he’s locked in to a spot there is quite a bit of competition down the middle now with lindol zacha is expected to move to the wing but he gets still played down the middle Charlie Cole uh Mark Castell Johnny beer Trent Frederick can take reps down the middle so where ptra SLS in will be a very interesting uh thing to keep an eye on in training camp to be sure my guess is he’ll slot in on the third line but you never know maybe he jumps up and plays with Marshon and geeki another guy who can play center to put uh Coyle down with Frederick as they have had some good chemistry in the past a guy who may be ready to step up as well is Fabian lell and although he uh was not a participant because he had been there the previous three Summers the 21-year-old was a discussion point at development Camp to be sure because the Bruins are expected to enter training camp with a vacancy on the right side in the top six and it’s easy to pencil him in uh he had 50 points and 56 games for Providence last season before his uh campaign was shut down to the injury Don Sweeny had said he was a the top candidate to be recalled in the event of injury before his injury and uh Ryan mugel who had called him out earlier in the season for perhaps not being uh a team player or playing strong without the puck he gave him his due credit he said lysel had huge steps this past season forget how young he is at times uh he came in as a 19y old the maturity that he’s shown in his game has been great to see it’s been two years and the light started to go on really early on this year you play well in your own end it translates to offense and muga called him a really special player he’s a special kid and all these offensive gifted players have some sort of deficiency especially defensively and he’s really starting to come along and he’s going to push for a roster spot in um in training camp to be sure so that is uh that’s really encouraging to hear and the Bruins need that because again they have a big um hole in the top six that has not been addressed in free agency they’re still waiting to sign Jeremy Swan if they have some money left over perhaps they look at free agent route with a guy like Philip zadina Daniel spra maybe Kyler Yamamoto but it looks like they’re looking for that internal push from a guy like lysel who at 21 should be able to yeah he should be on the NHL roster this coming season there’s no reason why he should not be uh playing at the NHL after being a first round pick a few years ago so those were the main points from development Camp again uh thanks to Conor Ryan for that great article to draw from I of course was not able to be in attendance being up here in G Ontario but great to see some of those um updates from training camp and just seeing now speaking of value signings the Florida Panthers adding Adam bokvist to the back end that could be a nice addition for them a guy who was um not qualified by the Columbus Blue Jackets but who had been drafted pretty highly uh in his draft year and was in the conversation with the likes of Evan Bard uh could have been a guy that the Bruins should have picked up um looking at the hockey news here speaking of prospect rankings the Boston Bruins featured today uh uh and the headline is Bruins have uh what does it say here yep still some deficiencies when it comes to their Prospect pool um so that is uh Is Not Great Tony Ferrari writing that the Bruins uh they’ve been a consistently competitive Squad but that has diminished their playoff pool because you can only you know add so much when you’re not drafting in the first or second round for years on end anyways that’s it for today’s episode please do subscribe so that you catch each episode daily we’ll be back tomorrow with all the latest on the black and gold we’re going daily for the most part here through the month of July so please stick with me and uh hopefully we get a Jeremy Swingman contract sooner than later hope you’re all having a great week take care of yourselves friends take care of each other we’ll talk to you again here next time on locked on Boston Bruins part of the locked on podcast Network your team every single day

Nikita Zadorov traveled up to Boston on Monday to be introduced by Bruins General Manager Don Sweeney. Zadorov will wear #91 and has aspirations of winning a Stanley Cup in black and gold. Let’s go, Big Zaddy.

Plus, some notes on last week’s development camp, including Dean Letourneau, Oskar Jellvik, Matt Poitras, Fabian Lysell, and more.

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