G Yaroslav Askarov - SKA-Neva St.Petersburg, VHL (2020, 11th, NSH)

[Maplebeasts]

Lol people here need to relax. Not every elite goalie has a good WJC and as a fan that had a goalie put up a ridiculous WJC (Pogge) not every goalie that has a good wjc is elite. Askarov might not be having the best tournament but he still has the best resume and skillset of any goalie since Price before entering the league.

 

[OldScool]

Lol people here need to relax. Not every elite goalie has a good WJC and as a fan that had a goalie put up a ridiculous WJC (Pogge) not every goalie that has a good wjc is elite. Askarov might not be having the best tournament but he still has the best resume and skillset of any goalie since Price before entering the league.

says a few media pundits which everyone in the press regurgitated- doesn’t make it right.

 

[tmlmatus]

Lol people here need to relax. Not every elite goalie has a good WJC and as a fan that had a goalie put up a ridiculous WJC (Pogge) not every goalie that has a good wjc is elite. Askarov might not be having the best tournament but he still has the best resume and skillset of any goalie since Price before entering the league.

I'm not seeing the skillset at all.

 

[Zaddy]

Lol people here need to relax. Not every elite goalie has a good WJC and as a fan that had a goalie put up a ridiculous WJC (Pogge) not every goalie that has a good wjc is elite. Askarov might not be having the best tournament but he still has the best resume and skillset of any goalie since Price before entering the league.

He absolutely does not. His poor fundamentals are getting exposed. He's a guy who showed exceptional athleticism and battle in a couple of international tournaments and that got him completely overhyped. His positioning is not particularly good, he scrambles a lot, his glove hand is not good, he leaves a lot of space in the upper part of the net. There is so much work to do for him to become a good NHL goaltender let alone one of the best in the game.

 

[Maplebeasts]

He absolutely does not. His poor fundamentals are getting exposed. He's a guy who showed exceptional athleticism and battle in a couple of international tournaments and that got him completely overhyped. His positioning is not particularly good, he scrambles a lot, his glove hand is not good, he leaves a lot of space in the upper part of the net. There is so much work to do for him to become a good NHL goaltender let alone one of the best in the game.

says a few media pundits which everyone in the press regurgitated- doesn’t make it right.

I'm not seeing the skillset at all.

The WJC is the only setting he hasn't performed like an elite goalie at in his young career. He is already a really good goalie at the KHL level at 18.

 

[OldScool]

He absolutely does not. His poor fundamentals are getting exposed. He's a guy who showed exceptional athleticism and battle in a couple of international tournaments and that got him completely overhyped. His positioning is not particularly good, he scrambles a lot, his glove hand is not good, he leaves a lot of space in the upper part of the net. There is so much work to do for him to become a good NHL goaltender let alone one of the best in the game.

he isn’t the best goalie in last years draft class. Said it over and over and got attacked for it. Still stand by that assessment. People get blown away with highlight reel saves but the best goalies don’t need to make highlight reel saves because they are were they are supposed to be.

 

[OldScool]

The WJC is the only setting he hasn't performed like an elite goalie at in his young career. He is already a really good goalie at the KHL level at 18.

He wasn’t the best 02 goalie at 5 nations.

 

[Snagari]

Goalie is almost never as good as he seems in a tourney and vice versa. BUT, this should open some eyes, he is playing in a crazy team in KHL, this kind of game comes very rearly to him. He is very jittery, makes way too big of movements on shots and gets of his net often because of that. In the NA rink that's gonna get u smoked. Biggest improvements IMO: narrow the stance, keep the glove lower (now it's almost beside his ear), move more on your feet (sliding to every play atm). Overall calming the play is a process, but this should open some eyes, he needs to start that process before going to NA.

 

[Zaddy]

he isn’t the best goalie in last years draft class. Said it over and over and got attacked for it. Still stand by that assessment. People get blown away with highlight reel saves but the best goalies don’t need to make highlight reel saves because they are were they are supposed to be.

It's funny because I just posted this in the Oilers WJC thread:

Levi is so much more calm and collected in net than Askarov. I take a calm and positionally sound goalie over a guy who makes highlight reel saves any day of the week. If you make highlight reel saves as a goalie that usually means you're out of position to begin with.

 

[Maplebeasts]

You would think people by now would have learned to not read too much into WJC results when evaluating goalie prospects.

 

[Zaddy]

You would think people by now would have learned to not read too much into WJC results when evaluating goalie prospects.

Yeah you can't evaluate him based on his WJC performance but it's possible to hype him to the moon for his Hlinka performance. Seems fair.

Anyway, there are many people here who have seen him for many more games than just these ones and commented on the flaws in his game that are very apparent here.

 

[ijuka]

People get blown away with highlight reel saves but the best goalies don’t need to make highlight reel saves because they are were they are supposed to be.

That's so true and what I always say about goalies, that's why I think goalies like reto berra or mike smith were extremely overrated. People just don't like "boring". They want goalies who make highlight reel saves, even though it'd be a basic butterfly save with the puck hitting their chest if they had positioned correctly. The more boring a goalie's saves, the better.

 

[Caser]

 

[Gnashville]

Would you trade him for Levi?

 

[Soundgarden]

Yikes, this thread is awful. He's 18 and it's one tournament where's he's been decent and has had to make some great saves, he's far from a bust.

 

[4Twenty]

People who’ve seen a lot more than 5-10 WJ games think he’s pretty good. I’ve seen him be very good.

The fishbowl nature of this tournament has increased to crazy levels in this pandemic.

This tournament doesn’t make or break your NHL career.

This Canada team is pretty decent.

 

[nhlfan9191]

On the contrary, his glove is absolutely amazing. You’re probably referring to the goal he let in against Germany when he got screened ?

I definitely don’t see “amazing glove” when I watch him as demonstrated tonight against Canada and many other moments of this tournament. I admittedly am evaluating him on what I’ve seen from this tournament. But I’m not seeing anything close to seeing a prospect that warrants a top pick 15 pick, much less going at 11.

 

[OldScool]

Would you trade him for Levi?

any average high school goalie could be doing what Levi is doing. Canada’s defense doesn’t give up any high quality scoring chances. Not saying Levi is bad but the team in front of him is so good you really can’t evaluate him. He is making the saves but they are easy saves.

 

[Maplebeasts]

Yeah you can't evaluate him based on his WJC performance but it's possible to hype him to the moon for his Hlinka performance. Seems fair.

Anyway, there are many people here who have seen him for many more games than just these ones and commented on the flaws in his game that are very apparent here.

Good thing I didn't say that then? Look at his work in the KHL.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

very athletic and mobile but needs to stop thinking he's Hasek and focus more on technique

 

[Soundgarden]

Would you trade him for Levi?

Levi's playing behind a team almost entirely out of 1st round picks. Stop being hyperbolic.

 

[Zaddy]

Good thing I didn't say that then? Look at his work in the KHL.

What about it? First of all it's seven games which is a pretty tiny sample size. Second of all he plays on a stacked team and I'd argue his stats are a bit inflated because he is barely facing any shots. One of his shutouts he saved 11 shots for instance, but an 11 game shutout and his other 33 game shutout counts the same in the stats even though they're obviously very different.

His VHL play last year was nothing special. He was 47th (bottom-ten) in save percentage in that league I believe. He played in 2 VHL games this year too and has a .900 save percentage there. He has two WJC tournaments now where he hasn't been anything special at all. The only place where he has looked exceptional is the WHC-17 and the Ivan Hlinka last year. That's it.

 

[Future]

very athletic and mobile but needs to stop thinking he's Hasek and focus more on technique

He’s 18. He’ll put in work with a good goalie coach and he’ll be fine. What he has can’t be taught. Freakish athleticism like a prime Marc-Andre Fleury

 

[BlackEye from Xhekaj]

Big time prospects play big in the biggest games and busts play like Askarov. I am just glad the Predators know now he can’t play instead of 3 years from now. I hate the wasted 11th pick but it’s not like they are going anywhere soon so they will have about 5 more top 10 picks to erase this mistake.

Would you trade him for Levi?

Man I hope your fanbase has more patience than 3 months and 1 tournament. The kid was awesome at the Karjala Cup last month (no mention of that one).. how many goalies are finished products at 18? Give him time, he has all the tools, and needs refinement.. in due time he'll be the goalie of the future in Nashville.

 

[Stephen]

TSN seems overly hard on Askarov in this semi finals loss to Canada.

Interesting that at the time of the draft one of the big things separating Askarov from Arthur Akhtyamov was how much more refined his game is but tonight he looked like Marc-Andre Fleury in 2003. All the talent and athleticism in the world but no control.