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Colorado Avalanche: Nikita Zadorov Signs 1-Year Contract

By Nadia Archuleta|
DENVER, CO - MAY 06: Nikita Zadorov #16 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates the victory against the San Jose Sharks in Game Six of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Pepsi Center on May 6, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - MAY 06: Nikita Zadorov #16 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates the victory against the San Jose Sharks in Game Six of the Western Conference Second Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Pepsi Center on May 6, 2019 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Colorado Avalanche defenseman Nikita Zadorov signed a one-year contract to stay with the team. Three players filed for salary arbitration.

The Colorado Avalanche have signed pending restricted free agent Nikita Zadorov to a one-year standard contracts worth $3.2 million. The 24-year-old defenseman is coming off a two-year contract with a $2.15 million cap hit. At the conclusion of this contract, he’ll be a restricted free agent again.

I don’t mind Zadorov getting a raise. His contract is in the vicinity of the Islanders’ Calvin De Haan and St. Louis’ Joel Edmondson.

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I’m not overly keen on the term, though. Why just one year? Are the Avs offering Zadorov term contracts with salary he doesn’t like? Or are they unwilling to offer term?

Colorado Avalanche fans have a lot of opinions about Zadorov, and they’re not always flattering. He has a tendency to make mistakes, such as take bad penalties, or throw a pizza up the middle of the ice.

Hey, every shift of every game there are mistakes. What I like from Zadorov is that he seems to be willing to work on his mistakes. He looked a lot more solid this season. And, remember — he’s still just 24. Defensemen take longer to develop than forwards.

The other thing that I like about Zadorov is opponents don’t like him. When the player himself announced the contract with a picture of him Jack Eichel into the boards, Sabres fans immediately started howling:


Oooh, check out this burn:

Props for this one in German (Profanity alert):

And the always classy gif of Tom Wilson giving the player himself a concussion:


Lord, there were three:


This one’s nasty:

But then Zadorov would probably just respond this way:

Anyway, moving on from the Twitterstorm, Zadorov is the kind of player that opponents don’t like to play against because he’s a pest. That’s a good kind of player to have on the team.

Ok, one more tweet, this one reminding us what we love most about Nikita Zadorov:

Yep, it’s the patented Z-smash.

Meanwhile, in other news, JT Compher, Ryan Graves, and Sheldon Dries all filed for salary arbitration. I’m always interested at which players file. Compher doesn’t surprise me, but Graves and Dries do.

According to Cap Friendly, Compher’s qualifying offer could have been just $874,125. Avs insider Adrian Dater posits that Compher might be able to get up to $3 million. No telling where between those two numbers Colorado offered.

Sheldon Dries earned the same QO, while Graves was as low as $715,000.

Last season, just four out of 44 cases went to arbitration — Brett Kulak of Calgary, Gemel Smith of Dallas, Cody Ceci of Ottawa, and Jacob Trouba of Winnipeg.

If any of the three Avs players go to the arbitration hearings, they’ll take place late July, early August. Relatively recently, Ryan O’Reilly took the Avs to arbitration but signed a contract on the literal doorstep. Tyson Barrie went through the whole process then signed before the arbitrator weighed in.

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