OPINION: Nikita Zadorov deserves better from Colorado Avalanche

Last Saturday, the Colorado Avalanche sent 20-year old defenseman Nikita Zadorov down to their AHL affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage. I was surprised. I was disappointed. While I understand the team’s rough start presents a variety of challenges, I wish the Avalanche would provide a little more insight into their strategy. As it stands, the reassignment raises more questions than it answers.

Is this a short-term move or more of a long-term change? Does the reassignment signal an attempt from management to shelter their top prospects in the AHL while the franchise struggles? Why are some of the veterans with similarly bad numbers still with the team? What does the front office see the average fan does not?

You may wonder why I am asking these kinds of questions so early in the season. Let me use the Zadorov move to illustrate my point. For those who don’t remember, the Avalanche acquired the Russian defenseman as part of the Ryan O’Reilly trade.

(I am not going to delve into the merits of the trade, but for those who think the Avalanche should have mortgaged their future to sign him, let me just point out he is one of the few players who expected a hometown surcharge instead of a discount. He didn’t want to be here. The front office was forced to play the hand they were dealt and did their job acquiring some valuable prospects for a player who was leaving next year. Deal with it.)

The reports on Zadorov indicated he was a talented defenseman who needed some maturing and coaching to be great. He exhibited great hockey sense, quick feet, an impressive reach, and an intense competitive streak showcased by his physical style of play. The biggest concerns about him related to his relative immaturity and the sense the Buffalo Sabres mismanaged him. He came to the Avalanche needing quality coaching and mentoring to help build his confidence, confidence undermined by his time in Buffalo.

Zadorov arrived at training camp, seemingly happy to be here, and excited for the chance to become an integral part of an up-and-coming team. He showed flashes of brilliance as well as flame outs, one moment driving pressure on the net and the next being out of position and allowing the opponents to drive into the Avalanche zone. He seemed pretty much as advertised, a young, skilled defenseman with lots of potential and with 67 NHL games already under his belt.

So what did the Avalanche do with him? Over 11 games they cut Zadorov’s ice time in half, played him with bottom pairing partners, and scratched him multiple times. Somehow, he fell out of favor in ten games, even though he improved his plus-minus rating prior to being scratched. After the ‘coaching’ from the press box, he played poorly in his one remaining game, which makes me wonder about the effectiveness of the coaching.

If reassignments to the Rampage after a bad game are considered a good method to motivate players, half the team should have spent some time in the AHL based on the season to date, including favorites like forwards Gabriel Landeskog and Matt Duchene. Nathan MacKinnon is the only star forward who has scored more goals than the team has given up due to his defensive lapses.

Returning the discussion to Zadorov, the general consensus from hockey experts around the time of the trade centered on the need for quality development and coaching, something he lacked in Buffalo. The Sabres damaged his evolution by rushing him onto the opening night roster and then bouncing him back to his OHL team, the London Knights. In his second season, Zadorov saw limited ice time for an historically bad Buffalo team to the tune of sixty games. Playing alongside similarly young players finding their way like Rasmus Ristolainen and Tyler Myers, Zadorov never seemed to receive the kind of veteran mentorship current Avs Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene received early in their careers.

On Zadorov’s reassignment, Colorado Avalanche General Manager Joe Sakic stated “…I think he lost a little bit of confidence…and if you’re not playing PK, PP — the quality minutes — as a young guy, (they need to go down). We’re going to need him (in the future). For a young man in that position, he needs to play a ton and work on his confidence.”

In eleven short games, the Avalanche managed to undermine the player’s confidence to the point their only alternative was to send him down? What exactly is happening in the coaching office? I have a crazy suggestion. Why not play the young players who are the future of the team now and let them gain valuable NHL experience? Why not let Zadorov play on the penalty kill and power play units? Why aren’t we seeing Brandon Gormley playing more minutes than Nate Guenin?

Please, for the love of hockey, someone in the Avalanche headquarters, explain this to me. Why are they giving the aging veterans all the ice time when they aren’t the future of the team? Where does the player development part of coaching enter the equation? How are the Avalanche going to be a better team next year if they keep doing the same things that failed before?

Please, please tell me the Colorado Avalanche are not going to be the train wreck Buffalo became last year. If the Avs aren’t training their young players and they are losing confidence in six (Mikko Rantanen) to 11 games, I have to wonder, why did they start in the first place? And if they were good enough to make the opening roster, what happened to undermine their confidence to the point where sending them down to the AHL presents a better option for their development?

I don’t know everything there is to know about hockey, and I probably never will, but I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to question the logic of sending a player down to ‘help them build confidence.’ If it undermined their confidence in Buffalo, as it appears it did with Zadorov and forward Mikhail Grigorenko (his team mate and also an Avalanche acquisition from the O’Reilly trade), then it’s likely to have the same effect when the Avalanche send them down.

Joe Sakic had a minus FORTY for his plus/minus his second year with the Quebec Nordiques, yet he did not get sent to a minor league team. The lesson?  The most direct way to develop NHL quality players requires allowing them to play against NHL players, and coach them on how to BE NHL players.

Starting on an AHL team and then working one’s way up to the NHL is a proven route, but bouncing back-and-forth is a risky business only a few players manage to overcome. While there are a few players tough enough to weather the back and forth between NHL and AHL, I have to wonder whether those methods will build the future for the Avalanche or undermine their hard work.

The Avalanche’s rough start this season puzzles me and while I understand they need to get some wins, some of their moves leave me wondering about their strategy. For now, I need to go find my glue gun. My foam puck head desperately needs repairs from repeatedly hitting my head against the wall.