This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Nikita Zadorov
Calgary Flames Defense
Six-seven and 255 pounds, with the highest shot-attempt share of the 202 qualified defencemen and the 4th-lowest block rate.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | BUF | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 25.0 | 17:10 |
| 2014-15 | BUF | 60 | 3 | 12 | 15 | -10 | 51 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 52 | 5.8 | 17:42 |
| 2015-16 | COL | 22 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -5 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 0.0 | 16:56 |
| 2016-17 | COL | 56 | 0 | 10 | 10 | -20 | 73 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 61 | 0.0 | 19:02 |
| 2017-18 | COL | 77 | 7 | 13 | 20 | +4 | 103 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 94 | 7.4 | 19:28 |
| 2018-19 | COL | 70 | 7 | 7 | 14 | +19 | 75 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | 7.0 | 17:12 |
| 2019-20 | COL | 64 | 4 | 9 | 13 | +6 | 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 6.2 | 17:46 |
| 2020-21 | CHI | 55 | 1 | 7 | 8 | +1 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 52 | 1.9 | 19:12 |
| 2021-22 | CGY | 74 | 4 | 18 | 22 | +11 | 77 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 106 | 3.8 | 16:55 |
| 2022-23 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 485 | 27 | 78 | 105 | +2 | 496 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 552 | 4.9 | 18:05 |
This Season So Far
The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
4 goals and 18 assists in 74 games — 22 points at 16:55 a night, plus-11, with 77 penalty minutes.
55.7 per cent of the expected goals at five-on-five over 1,191 minutes, the 90th percentile among defencemen, and 58.9 per cent of the shot attempts — the highest of the 202 qualified defencemen. His ice went 45-38 against an expectation of 54.39-43.22, so both ends came in well under the chances.
Sixteen fifty-five a night is the 20th percentile in ice time. He was a third-pair defenceman on a club that outshot everybody, and the attempt share is a great deal of that.
The Finesse Game
99.4 mph is the 90th percentile among defencemen, from 52 feet with 8 per cent of his shots from the slot. He shoots hard from the point and 4 goals on 106 attempts is what that is worth.
1.53 takeaways per 60 is the 88th percentile among defencemen against 2.92 giveaways at the 96th, which counts against him. He is an aggressive, high-event defender in both directions.
The Physical Game
6-7 and 255, 8.68 hits per 60 is the 92nd percentile among defencemen — and 2.35 blocks per 60 is the 4th-lowest of the 202 qualified defencemen, behind only Quinn Hughes, Keith Yandle and Erik Karlsson.
That is the most surprising pair of numbers in this book. The largest defenceman in the league does not go down in front of pucks; he steps up and finishes the check instead. He takes 1.53 penalties per 60, the 197th of 202, and his drawn-minus-taken of minus-0.96 is the 2nd percentile.
22.9 mph is the 93rd percentile among defencemen and 9.14 miles per 60 is the 98th, at 6-7. He moves like a much smaller man.
The Intangibles
Sixteenth overall in 2013 by Buffalo, and 485 NHL games at 27 across four clubs with 496 penalty minutes.
He and Erik Gudbranson played 1,708 attempts together at 56.5 per cent; Gudbranson without him was at 44.1 and Zadorov without Gudbranson at 52.7. Gudbranson has gone to Columbus. On the evidence, Calgary kept the right one.
What kind of player
The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.
- measuredcomputed here from the season's own data
- a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
- he lacks itraised, and he does not have it
Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.
- sheltered· is started in the attacking end
62% of his end-zone starts in the attacking end, 98th percentile among defencemen
Season to season, this measure repeats well (0.66) · 47% keep it
“8.68 hits per 60 is the 92nd percentile among defencemen”
“The largest defenceman in the league does not go down in front of pucks; he steps up and finishes the check instead.”
“He takes 1.53 penalties per 60, the 197th of 202, and his drawn-minus-taken of minus-0.96 is the 2nd percentile.”
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2021-22 · 1,191 minutes
- Expected goals
- 55.7%
- 88th pct
- Shot attempts
- 58.9%
- 99th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 45 for, 38 against. Expected: 54.4 and 43.2.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe numbers rank him 30 points above where the report does. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 649 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 62 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Tracked
NHL Edge, 2021-22 · 74 games
- Top speed
- 22.9 mph
- 94th pct
- Bursts over 20 mph
- 0.76 a game
- Distance
- 2.58 miles a game
- Hardest shot
- 99.4 mph
- 92nd pct
fastest he was clocked all season; the league's average best is 21.5
how often he reaches that speed, not how fast he goes
skated, all strengths
one shot; the league's average best is 90.4
A top speed is a season's best, and a man who takes more shifts gets more tries at one; the percentile is the feed's own, against every skater, and says less between a top-pair defenceman and a fourth-line wing than it does between two men in the same job. The counts are shown per game for the same reason.
Usual linemates
2021-22 · 1191 minutes at five-on-five
- Chris Tanev10%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2021-22
- The club
- CGY took 55.2% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 55.7% — 0.5 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- Third pair, 1,191 minutes at five-on-five — 84th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Erik Gudbranson | 56.5% | 52.7% | 44.1% |
| Johnny Gaudreau | 62.0% | 53.3% | 58.9% |
| Andrew Mangiapane | 59.5% | 54.4% | 59.3% |
56.5% together, 52.7% for him apart and 44.1% for Gudbranson apart. Both were worse apart, so whatever the two of them had together was doing real work.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
159 unblocked shots in 2021-22, 4 of them goals. His median goal came from 42 feet. 4% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 71% from beyond forty.