NHL Scouts’ Quotes Part 3
April 12, 2020
By Grant McCagg
Yaroslav Askarov – G Neva St. Petersburg VHL 2002-06-16 6-3 176 Right
2019-20 Stats: 18GP 1052Mins 2.45GAA .920SP
Quebec-based scout Feb. 2020 – “He didn’t drop too far at the World Juniors. You can’t take too much out of that. He may not be the best goalie ever the world, but you know what, I could see somebody definitely taking him in the top ten. Like New Jersey…what if they’re picking four. Who are they taking? They have no goalie. He may be a franchise goalie…so once you get to three…then you gotta think about him.
“He looks better than Spencer Knight. He looks like Carey Price potential. He played the best I’ve ever seen since I’ve been scouting as a 16-year-old. At the world juniors, he was fidgety, he looked nervous. I never seen that before…he was shuffling from side-to-side there almost like he was taking his feet off of the ice. It’s just calmness I think. But that’s a tough tournament for a young guy.”
Ontario-based scout Apr. 2020 – “I had him top ten early without an issue, and then at the World Junior he was average…but then you step back and think of the magnitude of it…for a goaltender at that age, so I gave him a slight mulligan for that. But after that he was just average too.
“As much as his feet were active…what really concerns me is the way he holds his glove. I put in my last report that I wouldn’t put him at first base in the team lob ball tournament. He has trouble catching the puck. the new way is to hold the glove out in front of you a little bit, but I think it affects him. If affects him tracking the puck, and I think he misses some saves that he should have stopped. But at the end of the day; he’s a 17-year-old kid that played in the world junior.
“Underage year he won; he’s got size, he’s got athletic ability, so how high somebody bites on him is what it’s really gonna be. He slides maybe because of the concerns and being Russian, but 15 is the absolute latest he goes in my opinion. There’s 22 starting goalies in the world max. so; if you’re convinced this guy is going to be a starter, which I believe that he will be, hard to pass on him. I guess you go over the years a little bit. Vasilevskiy went at 20, and this guy is probably touted a little bit higher.”