Nikita Zadorov knows his Bruins’ and Boston sports lore. In fact, he knows it well enough to know where not to go.
With his size (6-foot-6, 250 pounds) and his last name, it was natural for his former teammates to draw a correlation to former Bruins’ captain Zdeno Chara. He was having none of it.
“In my past teams, people were calling me Big Z. Please do not ever call me Big Z now, because I feel like I’m not even close to being called half of the Big Z,” said the Moscow native on his Zoom call with the reporters. “He’s unbelievable. He’s one of the best defensemen of all time. There’s definitely a lot to learn from him. He was one of my role models growing up because of the size and physical play. And the leader he is, I think I can learn a lot from him.”
If Zadorov can play as well as he handled his first Boston presser, he’ll do OK. He sounded like he was born to be a Bruin.
“Where do I start with ‘why did a pick the Bruins?’ Everything,” said the imposing, hard-hitting D-man. “The culture and the organization. It’s a big league and we talk between the guys all the time about their experience with teams and I haven’t heard a bad thing in 11 years about the Bruins’ culture and the Bruins team and the players who played here. It was pretty much a no-brainer for me, when we found out the Bruins were interested in me, to come and play for them. It was mutual. I think Boston was on time of my list my whole life. It’s an unbelievable organization, an Original Six team. I feel like the Bruins’ style, I always loved wathcing it. Even my first year, my second NHL game was against Boston. They had those big guys, Chara, (Patrice) Bergeron, (Milan) Lucic, (Nathan) Horton. They were a hard team to play against. I thought one day it would be great fit for me to come and play for the Bruins. I’m super thankful for the opportunity.”
You can expect Zadorov to immerse himself in the entire Boston sports laandscape.
“The city overall, it’s probably the best sports city in the United States,” said Zadorov, who said a few teams were interested in him. “You’ve got the Celtics, they won this year and they always have a good team and an unbelievable history. The Red Sox as well. I’m not a big baseball guy, but from what I’m hearing, the rivalry against the Yankees and all that. And obviously there’s the Pats with Tom Brady and the (Bill) Belichick dynasty. And the Bruins, with Bobby Orr and the time in 2011 with Stanley Cup. This is a city of winners and the fans expect you to win and do good every year. I like the challenge. I’ve played in the big markets, in Vancouver. It’s always fun when you embrace that challenge, with high expectations and pressure and you just bring that every night. I think that’s a perfect place for me and I will fit right in, for sure.”…
Elias Lindholm is looking to redeem himself after a down year split between Calgary and Vancouver, when he had just 15 goals and 29 assists. That was down from 22-42-64 the year before and 42-40-82 while centering Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau the year before that. The uncertainty of the season, getting traded in the midst of his contract year, played a part in the downturn.
“Obviously it definitely did,” said Lindholm, who signed a seven year deal worth $7.75 million annually. “Going into a season like that and then being uncertain what’s going to happen — you kind of know you’re going to get traded, but you don’t know where or when. It definitely affected me, more than I was hoping. But I’m glad that time is over and now I know for a long time where I’m going to be. It’s exciting.”
Lindholm said that his Swedish countryman and namesake, Hampus Lindholm “made a little pitch” for Boston, though it didn’t sound like he needed much convincing.
“As soon as Boston came in, it was exciting for me and my family. We were pumped,” said Lindholm, who has a 53.4% career faceoff mark. “I think it’s a good fit. Honestly, playing in the league for a long time, I tried to look at (Patrice) Bergeron as much as possible. I don’t want to compare myself to him or anything like that but I think I can bring a little bit of what he did, bring my game and come back to the player I know I can be and hopefully help this team achieve a Stanley Cup.”…
The B’s first round draft pick on Friday, 6-foot-7 Dean Letourneau, was on hand for the start of B’s Development Camp. But it wasn’t his first time skating at Warrior Ice Arena. As a member of his St. Andrews College team, the Ottawa area native played in a weekend tournament at Warrior last season and had an overtime game-winner in one of the contests.
He didn’t know then that Warrior will be his future professional office.
“I knew it could have been a possibility but I’m happy with the way it foreshadowed a little bit,” said Letourneau.
The big centerman thought that he’d be spending the upcoming season in the USHL before going to Boston College. But when Will Smith decided to sign with San Jose, that opened up a slot for him at Heights.
“I got the call two days into the combine so I was already on a pretty big high there, so just to hear coach (Greg) Brown ask if I wanted to come in, it was very exciting,” said Letourneau….
The Bruins will get to see the Florida Panthers raise their Stanley Cup banner – joy of joys – when the Panthers host them in their home opener on October 8. The B’s home home opener will be two nights later when they host the Montreal Canadiens at the Garden. The NHL will release the full league schedule on Tuesday…
The first player on the ice at Dev camp was Matt Poitras, who is almost full systems go after undergoing shoulder surgery on February 7.
“I feel really good. Obviously I don’t want to rush things. It’s still the start of July and we’ve got two more months till camp starts, so I don’t need to rush anything. But I feel good,” said Poitras, who said he added eight or nine pounds.
At the moment, Poitras could reasonable be penciled in for third line center. But now that he can be sent down to Providence, he can’t take anything for granted.
“For me, it’s still putting on some more strength, getting faster, getting stronger and also, I wasn’t too great on the dot last year. So, if I want to be a center, I’ll kind of use these next couple of months working on winning faceoffs,” said Poitras…
The Bruins also added a lot of organizational depth, signing F Riley Tufte to a one-year deal worth $775,000; F Coole Koepke to a one-year, two-way contract for an NHL cap hit of $775,000; D Jordan Oesterle to a one-year, two-way deal for $775,000; D Billy Sweezey to a two-year, two-way for $775,,000; and F Jeffrey Viel to a two-year deal with and AAV of $775,000. Viel’s first year is a two-way and the second is a one-way deal…
Jake DeBrusk was not the only departing Bruin. Danton Heinen, with whom the B’s had been negotiating, signed a two-year deal with his hometown Canucks for an AAV of $2.25 million, joining DeBrusk in British Columbia. Derek Forbort also joined the Canucks on a one-year deal worth $1.5 million. Matt Grzelcyk will be reunited with his Boston University coach David Quinn, now an assistant under Mike Sullivan in Pittsburgh, as the defenseman inked a one—year deal with the Penguins for $2.75 million. Pat Maroon signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Bllakhawks for $1.3 million.
