Zadorov finding home with Bruins after adjustment period

BOSTON -- The camera latched onto the two players, David Pastrnak and Nikita Zadorov, sitting side-by-side at TD Garden, taking in a Boston Celtics game. Zadorov, clad in a steel gray jacket with a black turtleneck underneath, lifted the clear plastic cup to his mouth as Pastrnak pointed an index finger at his teammate.

Zadorov drank.

The Boston Bruins defenseman downed the beer in one go, playing to the audience at the early December basketball game, getting a playful slap from Pastrnak for his efforts.

"I mean, I was on the Jumbotron in Boston," Zadorov said, later. "Why would I not do it? That's me, right?"

It is precisely him, a larger-than-life hockey player, a larger-than-life personality, a person who is blunt and exuberant, who is deeply thoughtful and nuanced, who understands the weight his voice carries and the potential for missteps when he uses it.

There is a tendency in hockey, at times, to conform, an ethos of the whole being more important than any one of its parts, that the boat doesn't need to be rocked. It's something that could be seen in the recent comments by Calgary Flames rookie Zayne Parekh comparing NHL players at times to robots earlier this week.

Zadorov is not a robot.

"I just want to be open and I want you guys [the fans and media] to understand what's in my mind," Zadorov said in a sitdown with NHL.com. "I just speak my mind. I think people appreciate that. Sometimes they don't agree with my opinion which it's normal, it's OK, too, right? You have a different opinion, but you've got to respect me for saying the truth all the time. I'm just trying to be like that. It's my personality and I'm sticking to it."

Zadorov is a fully fleshed out human, one who has found a home in Boston, where he has grown his game, his leadership, his position on a team searching for an identity after having shipped out many of its veterans -- including captain Brad Marchand - before the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline.

But it's a place that has been hard-earned, a path that has had its bumps.

When Zadorov joined the Bruins last season after signing a six-year, $30 million contract on July 1, 2024, the fit wasn't immediate, either on the ice or off it, a transition period that required patience and understanding, an evaluation of different cultures and cultural norms, but it's one that has settled into place. His game, now, is soaring on the ice, his popularity soaring off it, as he and the Bruins take on the New York Rangers at TD Garden on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; ABC, SNP, SNO, SNE).

"He's a big presence and obviously can rub a lot of guys the wrong way," said forward Elias Lindholm, who has played with Zadorov with the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Bruins, and called him "a different bird, obviously." "When we came to Calgary together, we weren't best friends in the beginning, but it takes time to get to know him and once you get to know him, he's an unbelievable guy.

"When you're such a big presence in the room, everyone's not going to like you at first, but once you get to know him it's great."

It has gone so well that, when Charlie McAvoy was out with an injury in November, Zadorov was rewarded with the "A" of an alternate captain, perhaps the truest sign that any rockiness in the transition has been smoothed out.

"It took time," the 30-year-old Zadorov said. "Sometimes I'm coming in a little bit too hot at the start, especially with relationships, you need to build that relationship. And the hockey part helps. I feel like the tightest teams I've been to, that's when you know everybody has their backs. When you go on the ice, you go like a war, and then you have your brother beside you. So I feel like that helps a lot."

That's where the understanding is born, where the trust develops – the hits, the blocked shots, the fights, the right words at the right time in the room.

But none of that happened immediately. There were stumbles.

"I think last year that was definitely part of what I experienced with him was trying to understand him, trying not to take things the wrong way in that regard when he was maybe overly honest or blunt in how he approaches things," McAvoy said. "I think maybe here the way that we say things or bring things to people's attention might be different, maybe a little softer.

"But that was something that I learned with him was, and honestly some of the Europeans in general that I've gotten to play with at this point, it's like they don't mean anything bad by it. But I think they're a little bit more honest than we are."

It's a difference in approach, in culture, that he's seen not just with Zadorov, a Moscow native. As McAvoy said, "I think I forget a lot of times how far from home those guys are and that they're learning another culture and stuff and that must weigh on them."

"Everybody makes mistakes," Zadorov said. "Sometimes I get emotional on the ice. I bark on somebody and I'll be like, 'Hey man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just care.' You know what I mean? … The guys know, too, like sometimes I come a little harsh because in Russian language and Slavic language, we are like that. We're just pretty direct and we're less polite like you Americans. We don't poke around, we just got straight to [the point]."

It wasn't just in the room. It took time for him to find himself on the ice, too, even if he knew when signing that the fit would ultimately be ideal. He had, after all, played against the Bruins in the second game of his NHL career, a game that featured a Boston roster with Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic and Shawn Thornton. That image stuck.

"It was a tough team," he said. "You'd go out there and you'd be like, 'I'm going to get my [behind] kicked,' so that's the mentality. Yeah, it's a really intelligent and smart city, but our fans are blue collar at the end of the day. They come after work, they want to open Bud Lite, they want to watch the game, they want to watch fighting, you know what I mean?

"They love this stuff and it fits me perfectly."

His tenure, though, began with too many penalty minutes accrued and some uneven play -- he leads the NHL in penalty minutes with 113 this season and finished first in the category last season with 145 -- on a team that saw a coach fired and a new direction forged in 2024-25. But this season, the defenseman has rounded into form, with Zadorov finding chemistry with McAvoy and becoming part of the Bruins top defense pair, at least when everyone is healthy.

He has shown off the best of his game, gaining consistency, unearthing the promise that once led Ted Nolan, his first NHL coach with the Buffalo Sabres, to tell him that he would someday win the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the League.

Nolan recalled recently discovering Zadorov, even at 18 and 19, as a "good-sized kid who could skate," praising both his hockey IQ and the mindset that "he knew he was good and he was going to prove that he was."

It took a couple of stops to do so, with a trade that sent him from Buffalo to the Colorado Avalanche for five seasons, a brief stop with the Chicago Blackhawks, two-plus years in Calgary and a half-season in Vancouver before signing with the Bruins, propelled by the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs run with the Canucks that saw him have eight points (four goals, four assists) in 13 games.

"I think you saw him kind of scratch the surface there in Vancouver on the playoff run and you could see what kind of defenseman he could be," said Lindholm, who was also acquired by the Canucks in a separate trade from Calgary during the 2023-24 season before both Lindholm and Zadorov signed with the Bruins in the summer of 2024. "Playing like [he is] right now, he's really hard to play against. … You've got to know when he's out there for sure. He can come from anywhere and he's pretty big."

That goes for his size, at 6-foot-7 and 255 pounds. His hits. His approach to life, which he appears to grasp with both hands.

It was Zadorov, after all, who walked into TD Garden on Dec. 23 in a full Santa Claus suit, before a game against the Montreal Canadiens in which he would be trading punches with Arber Xhekaj by the end of the first period.

It was also Zadorov who, after a hit on New York Islanders rookie Matthew Schaefer back in November posted to Instagram a shot of his direct messages with the caption "Get out of my DMs And go to the Rink To cheer for your team THAT PLACE WAS LIBARY [sic] TONIGHT!!"

As Lindholm said, "He doesn't think, just whatever he thinks he's just saying it right away. That's what I like about him. He speaks his mind."

It is, he explains, about being true to himself, to his beliefs, to his need for authenticity, in whatever arena.

"I think definitely if you're honest to yourself when you speak but you're also honest with yourself when you're on the ice and you play your game, people will see it," Zadorov said.

Boston has seen it. His teammates have seen it.

Now they get it. They get him.

"Last year was trying to learn him and understand him," McAvoy said. "He is a guy who is a bigger personality and a bigger presence so I think he's somebody who once you get to know him you can really appreciate everything there is about him. He's a really special guy and he's just awesome."