The Blackhawks love Nikita Zadorov.
At its core, that is the biggest reason why the Blackhawks made their splashiest trade of the 2020 offseason, sending Brandon Saad as well as Dennis Gilbert to the Avalanche for Zadorov and Anton Lindholm.
The swap was widely criticized by reporters, who saw Zadorov as an average, middle-aged NHL defenseman of lesser value than Saad and of little value at all to the Hawks’ youth-oriented rebuild.
But Hawks general manager Stan Bowman has a very different view of Zadorov.
He sees a one-of-a-kind physical defenseman who not only fills a niche the Hawks desperately needed to fill, but who will also — even more importantly — accelerate the development of the team’s elite young defensemen.
Zadorov is extremely physical with his 6-5, 235-pound body, and he’s a left-handed shot. Expect to see him paired alongside either Adam Boqvist or Ian Mitchell, the Hawks’ two blue-chip prospects — who both happen to be offensive-minded, right-handed shots — next season.
“I could see Nikita being a great partner for either of them,” Bowman said. “Nikita is a defensive player; he’s not going to be leading the rush or trying to dive down and make a ton of offense that way. He’s a good passer, but he’s more skewed on the defensive side, so he would be a nice complement to the young guys we have.
“Last year, we saw Adam take some hits, and I think teams target smaller guys to get them off their game. That’s something we want to make sure doesn’t happen going forward.”
The process that eventually led to the trade’s execution and Zadorov’s acquisition, however, was lengthy and intensive.
It started when the Hawks determined they would not elect to re-sign Brandon Saad — who has one year left at a $6 million cap hit on his current contract — when he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.
That decision stemmed from two things: a desire to create more cap flexibility for the Hawks, and a belief that Saad would demand at least $6 million or more for his next deal, too.
“When you make that decision, then you have to say, ‘Okay, it would be bad asset management to just play the season out with Brandon and let him go,’” Bowman said. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if we did that.
“So then you have a couple things you can do. You can trade him now, or you can keep him and trade him during the season or at the trade deadline.”
The trade deadline route frightened Bowman for two reasons. Firstly, if Saad suffered an injury or a downturn in play during the first half of the 2021 season, it could lower his value. Secondly, he expected the pool of teams looking to buy at the deadline to be smaller than it is right now.
So Bowman instead put Saad on the trade market this October, asking around the league and gauging offers. He didn’t name any specific teams, but the Bruins were rumored to be another potential suitor.
“When we talked to some of the teams that were interested in Saad over the last month, this was by far the best return that we were offered,” he said. “The marketplace right now is what it is. The market tells you what your player is worth.
“We asked for a lot of things in these types of trades and it doesn’t go anywhere. When we talked to Colorado and Nikita’s name came up, that really interested us.”
After reaching an agreement with the Avs on Oct. 10, Bowman and Avs GM Joe Sakic contacted the agents of the involved players. Zadorov’s agent, Daniel Milstein, ended up breaking the news on Twitter.
Saad’s agent, Lewis Gross, said he was contacted by Sakic rather than Bowman about the trade, but that the process was altogether pretty standard. Gross added Saad hasn’t thought about his plans as a pending UFA next year yet.
Even with this context, three pressing questions are hard to overlook.
Why did the Hawks not look to acquire draft picks or prospects — assets typically more associated with a rebuild — instead of an established player? Bowman replied that he sees “nothing wrong with that type of return” but, given how quickly the Hawks hope to execute this rebuild, felt less inclined to pursue something that would only be “helpful three years down the road.”
Why did the Hawks not shift their focus toward trading Saad at the deadline, since the current market was underwhelming? Bowman didn’t give an explicit response to that, but then again, he clearly considers Zadorov a more-than-sufficient return.
And why exactly do the Hawks value Zadorov, 25, so much more than Saad, 27, despite their mere 2.5-year age difference? That partially comes down to the fact Zadorov, who signed a one-year extension the day the trade went through, will be a restricted free agent again next offseason — Bowman calls it “team controlled” — while Saad will be unrestricted.
In the end, the logic essentially traces back to the Hawks’ intense affection for Zadorov. Bowman even went so far as to compare him to Duncan Keith at one point.
“We think [Zadorov’s] best years are ahead of him, and we like the element he brings,” Bowman said. “That’s why, for us, we saw a much different impact for this upcoming season and seasons to come for Zadorov than we do for Saad.”
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