Why Bruins head coach Marco Sturm could be perfect fit for Nikita Zadorov

Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov appreciates hard coaching. And Marco Sturm, the newest head coach of the Bruins, is regarded as someone who delivers his message in black and white, and with little room for interpretation.

That alone makes them a potential match as Sturm takes on his first NHL head coaching challenge, and with Zadorov entering his season year in Boston, and with some more comfort in his voice as a leader for the club.

But there's also another link between these two, and it's someone without any sort of relationship or connection to the Bruins: Darryl Sutter.

When Sturm was hired by the B's, he was asked about cultivating and fostering relationships with younger players. That has not been a strength of the Bruins for some time now, but it's something Sturm and the Bruins are going to have to get better at after reloading their prospect pool at the 2025 NHL Draft and given that they're one of the youngest clubs in the NHL entering training camp. For Sturm, that process begins in practice, and with a communication method he learned from some of his favorite coaches from his playing days.

"You’ve got to be very honest and direct with [players]. You’ve got to work with them. I feel like they're going to learn from our core group, from the older guys. And that's why the whole thing, it's so important. It's not just me, it's the team, right? And they've got to see it every day in practice [so] there shouldn't be any excuses, right?" Sturm said in his introductory press conference at TD Garden this past summer. "It's an easy way out, and a lot of guys take that route. And I'm just not one of them. And that's why I just address things very directly because of Claude Julien, Darryl Sutter, those are guys I learned from.

"And by being honest, I think you come a long way."

Sutter was at the helm in San Jose when Sturm broke into the league as a 19-year-old, and was Sturm's head coach for his five seasons in the NHL.

Zadorov, meanwhile, was coached by Sutter during his first two seasons in Calgary, and straight-up loved playing for Sutter's Flames.

“Darryl Sutter was my favorite coach I’ve ever had in my life, so I feel like we have a lot of mutual interest in that," Zadorov said in his first media availability of the new season. "I like old school coaches, I like direct coaches, I like hard coaches. [I'm] not afraid to take heat when I’m deserving, long as you tell it to my face, be fair to me, and give me what I deserve. I think that’s a good thing with coaching.” 

Having played for the Sabres, Avalanche, and Blackhawks before playing in Sutter's system, Zadorov's game took flight in Calgary.

In Calgary, the 6-foot-6 blue liner had back-to-back 20-point seasons for the first (and still only) time in his NHL career, including a career-best 14-goal season in his final season with Sutter behind the Calgary bench. And most importantly, Zadorov believes that he grew as both a player and person in those Sutter-led seasons with the Flames. Zadorov outright admits that he's not the player he is today without his experiences playing for Sutter, and said that those years were something he needed at that point in his career.

Coaching is also something that's clearly important to Zadorov.

Before joining the Bruins, Zadorov reached out to Dmitry Orlov to ask about then-Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery. Following Montgomery's firing early into the 2024-25 season, Zadorov admitted to RG Media that he did not see the same coach that Orlov had described, and that something was different. One of the things that Zadorov liked about Montgomery's replacement, Joe Sacco, was that he straightforward and honest in his messaging. The theme here is undeniable.

Ironically enough, though, in a season where pretty much everything went wrong, Zadorov was indeed a bright spot for the Black and Gold.

Despite skating on a Bruins team that had a minus-50 goal differential, Zadorov finished the season with a plus-25 rating. Not only was that the best on the Bruins, but it was also the 13th-best among all NHL defensemen. And of the 12 players ahead of him, the one whose team had the 'worst' goal differential was on Florida (plus-29). No matter how you feel about plus-minus as a stat, that's a downright ridiculously impressive feat for Zadorov, especially when considering that he's not exactly Cale Makar on the point leaderboard. Though his results there weren't bad, either, with a career-high 22 points for Boston in 2024-25.

In essence, there shouldn't be too many difficult conversations between himself and Sturm once camp begins. Instead, it'll be about Zadorov and Sturm working on rebuilding the culture and standard that the fans have come to expect.

"It’s unacceptable for this city and this club to not make the playoffs,” Zadorov said earlier this month. “We’re going to redeem ourselves. We got to go back out there, do our job, and make the playoffs this year. That’s how we look at it.”