Colorado Avalanche: Best Tweets about Nikita Zadorov

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov is one of the more interesting players to get to know via Twitter.

Getting to know the Colorado Avalanche players is sometimes easiest via Twitter, whether it’s their own Twitter or, more commonly, the team, media, and other fans’ Twitter.

Well, if there’s one interesting character I think it would be fun to get to know better, it’s 23-year-old defenseman Nikita Zadorov. When the Avalanche acquired him in the Ryan O’Reilly trade three years ago, it was still up in the air if he’d be able to adjust his game and show enough maturity to be a force in the NHL.

By last season, he was showing himself to have leadership qualities. Not only did he and his young wife have a baby — no more oversleeping his alarm, he had a built-in one now — but he was often the most level-headed of our three line-steppers.

By the end of the season, I was calling Zadorov Erik Johnson‘s heir-apparent. And you know by now, that’s high praise coming from me.

Let’s look at some of the best tweets that help us get to know Big Z from the last year.

At the beginning of the season, the Colorado Avalanche released introductory videos for all the players. Here is Nikita Zadorov’s:

My favorite part about this video is how all the players go into their bass voices to declare they call him “Z” or “Big Z.”

Nikita Zadorov eventually got to be known as one of the larger-than-life style Russian players. It started last summer, when Zadorov showed he’s got some of that Russian flashiness in his blood:

The selfie in the gym… well, at least he’s got his shirt on.

One year later, Zadorov was showing off his “money” — this time in the form of his tuxedoed self escorting his wife to a wedding:

Fun fact: even though many Avs fans graciously wished the two of them “Congratulations,” they were attending someone else’s wedding — Zadorov was already married with a kid at the beginning of the season, remember?

Throughout the season, Zadorov became well-known for his fashion sense. And that notoriety was well-founded:

Zadorov is apparently quite into fashion:

Like Sven Andrighetto, he rarely if ever wore socks throughout the year.

His attention to fashion sense caught the attention to the We Rate NHL Twitter account:

These shoes are money:

Zadorov’s “money” also came through in interviews. Here he distills part of the game down to its essence:

You can’t argue with that.

Zadorov also displays the proper attitude about the Minnesota Wild:

Yes, we do hate them. The Avs went on to spank the Wild 7-1, by the way.

One day in the dressing room, he randomly remarked the following:

Apparently, he’s bulked up since then. I don’t know why NHL.com doesn’t properly update. Actually, there’s a lot about the site that I don’t like.

Speaking of bulk, never make a mistake — Nikita Zadorov’s “money” comes though in his hits. Here he is annihilating Ian Cole:

Here’s another one:

I like the Caps, so I almost feel bad for TJ Oshie in this one — almost:

I mean, at least it wasn’t Zadorov who hit him. Look how Z flattened John Carlson.

He kept it up in the playoffs:

Color me unsurprised:

Really unsurprised.

This is just rude, though:

“Heat-seeking dump truck.”

Ok, technically (or literally) this tweet isn’t from last season. However, this is the gold standard of all Zadorov hit tweets:

Seriously, just stay on the ground.

Nikita Zadorov also has a soft side, as we saw at the annual Colorado Avalanche Charity Brunch:

Super cute:

Finally, let’s take a few minutes to celebrate how Nikita Zadorov did last season:

200 NHL games — that’s something.

Here’s something else:

Those 20 points were a career-high for Zadorov.

And Nikita Zadorov opened up the scoring in the playoffs:

That was big. That was a way to state to the Predators and to the world that it was not a fluke that the Colorado Avalanche were playing playoff hockey.

Nikita Zadorov has become a big part of the Colorado Avalanche. He’s only 23 years old. As he continues to mature off the ice and bring that maturity on the ice — not to mention grow into his own as a defenseman — he has the potential to be a core player for the team.