The Profile
Yaroslav Askarov
SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (MHL)
Goaltender
Born: June 16, 2002
Home: Omsk, Russia
6’3”+ 163lbs+
2020 NHL Draft Rankings:
@TPEHockey: #5
Future Considerations: #13
Hockey Prospect: #10
Sam “admitted goalie hater” Stern (@Aqualunggg): #17
Overview
When it comes to prospect talk few things are as controversial as goaltenders, but the consensus seems to be that Yaroslav Askarov is a high 1st round prospect for the 2020 draft. After single-handedly taking down the best U18 team ever assembled in the ‘01 NTDP team at the U18 World Juniors, Askarov shot up draft rankings. Although he’s been putting on a show everywhere he’s gone all season and has been in my top 10 for the 2020 draft since October of 2018.
Askarov’s 2018-19 season began as he suited up for the Russians at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Russia lacked a good 2001 born goalie and was forced to start an underaged ‘02 in Askarov. Despite being a year younger than the competition, Askarov stood tall against established stars like Kirby Dach, Dylan Cozens, and Alexis Lafrenière. He finished the tournament as one of the top goaltenders and a bronze medalist.
During the regular season, Askarov played his first season for SKA-Varyagi. The 16-year-old immediately shut down the MHL (Russian U20 league) posting huge numbers right off the bat.
The Russian management, after seeing how he performed at the Hlinka, sent him off to Quebec for the World U17 Challenge (a similar tournament to the WJC-U18 but for U17 players). If Askarov was to prove he was truly an elite goaltending prospect he needed to show he could dominate his own age group. And dominate he did. Askarov was the far and away leader in Sv% as he put up a whopping .948 over 5 games. This led him to be named to the all-star team, and let his Russian squad take gold.
As his strong season in the MHL wrapped up, Askarov was named to the Russian team at the U18 World Juniors. He played very well through the preliminary and elimination rounds, but shined against the Americans. The NTDP 2001 team came into this game having lost ZERO international games with Jack Hughes in the lineup through their 2 years as a team (the losses
at last year’s tournament don’t count since that was the 2000 team that Hughes played up with). They were heavy, heavy, heavy favorites. The Americans dominated the game, but Askarov made 40 saves, plus all 5 in the shootout. Russia took the game. They would eventually go on to lose in a heartbreaking overtime against Sweden in the finals, but Askarov had made himself known to the scouting community.
Movement & Puck Tracking
Askarov’s movement in the net is the key aspect that makes him an elite goaltending prospect. His lateral movement is the best I’ve ever seen in a young goaltender. He has a strong skating foundation with phenomenal edge work. Being so good on his edges allows him to utilize his explosive athleticism to cover the crease. With a single toe push (a push while in the butterfly) he can go cross-crease and take away what is usually a huge scoring chance, or he can go from a low stance into a slide and take away net. Askarov is also quick in transition, for example, he can easily go from a butterfly position to a slide or from sliding one direction to the other.
In these clips, you’ll see how explosive he is and how good he is at transition from any position into a toe push.
His lateral movement is so good it’s made him practically unbeatable in the shootout and on breakaways. Famously he stopped all 5 of the NTDP shooters in the semi-finals of the U18s, and of the games I’ve seen he’s gone 14 for 14, a perfect 100%. You simply can’t get around Askarov; he’s too strong laterally and explosive. Although in the rare scenario where he is beaten Askarov’s edges allow him to make quick adjustments and recover.
The other major strength in Askarov’s movement is his puck tracking abilities. Through back door, low to high, and cross-ice passes he always remains on his angle and square to the puck. He uses a wide variety of movements (toe pushes, t-glides, slides, shuffles, etc) to follow the play, and his selection of which movement to use is perfect. He minimizes the holes he opens and maximizes the amount of time he’s square to the shooter extremely well.
Watch in these clips how well Askarov maintains his position and follows the play.
After making his movements Askarov is locked onto the shooter. In the 1st clip, you can see him push off from his right side and he’s immediately square to the net front player and at the top of his crease. He’s phenomenal at cutting down angles without giving the shooter any room from the second he gets the puck.
Stance and Butterfly Form
Few goaltenders have as good form as Askarov. His normal stance is refined, but that’s what you’d expect from a top goaltending prospect. His feet are planted well giving him the ability to use his explosiveness to push off. He often uses a more narrow, higher stance, often to see over screens, when the puck is farther out. When the puck is closer or he anticipates a shot he uses a lower, wider stance to move quickly into a butterfly. In his wider stance, he can dig in his edges more. This is important because it maximizes the amount of energy he can transfer into his pushes.
The real strength in his form comes in his butterfly. As you may have noticed Askarov is ridiculously flexible. He’s able to spread his butterfly extremely wide and cover tons of net. He snaps down into the butterfly with ease and doesn’t give up mobility to widen it. His flexibility also allows him to slide while remaining completely sealed to the ice. Askarov is exceptional at sealing the ice while in the butterfly and when doing butterfly movements.
My only real problem with his form is that after a big movement he ends up on his chest a little more than I’d like to see. I haven’t seen it ever lead to him getting beat, but it’s something that could get exposed at the next level. The other issue that doesn’t show now, but could have an effect in the future, is his use of his flexibility. Sometimes goalies that love to get into the splits to make saves can get caught in that position and not be able to recover. This was something that famously got exposed in Jonathan Quick. Although, the likelihood this has any effect on Askarov is low due to him being great at recognizing when to deploy his flexibility.
Awareness
Askarov holds a major strength in his ability to anticipate the play. He knows where the puck is going next. He quickly identifies the most dangerous passing threat and is ready to make his move on the player if the pass is made. Another thing I like to see is that he often alerts his teammates of the threats which prevents the pass itself. In my breakdown of his movements, I noted how he quickly gets square to shooters after a pass is made to a dangerous area; Askarov’s awareness is a key part of that.
His awareness also contributes to his puck playing ability. He’s able to make a smart pass, especially on the powerplay, to his teammates. His general puck skills are above average, but his awareness is the pivotal factor. In the play below watch as he catches the Americans on a change and ends up creating a play that leads to a goal for Russia. https://youtu.be/w-qjX48h6s4
Rebound Control
One of the parts of his game I still don’t have a great grip on is Askarov’s rebound control. A lot of the time he does a really good job of absorbing pucks and quickly freezing them. He freezes a lot of pucks. Although every once in a while it’s as if he has a mental lapse and kicks a puck out into a medium danger area. He seems to be able to freeze a lot of shots other goalies couldn’t, but when he can’t freeze it he ends up giving up bad rebounds. Little in between.
In these clips, you’ll see how well he can corral a shot and make a quick freeze.
Askarov is also able to freeze so many pucks because of his wicked glove hand.
Glove and Reflexes
If you’ve seen Askarov you’ve seen the nasty glove on this kid. Loves to make a flashy glove save and has no problem doing it while covering the entire crease is a full split. His reflexes are lightning fast and with more than just his glove. I won’t say much here, I’ll just leave it to the highlight reel.
Askarov also has the stupefying ability to snag pucks out of there air despite a deep screen in from in him. Shots come in from the blueline and when most goalies struggle to see the puck he snags it. Part of this is to be attributed to his high and low stance mentioned in the breakdown of his form earlier. He uses his high stance and height to see over screens and make the glove save.
Weaknesses
In the games I’ve seen Askarov has been giving up goals in two main ways. First, he’s been getting the corner picked on his shortside. Often he’s going down too early and gives up the area right around the ears. As he moves up the ranks of the Russian system this is something that has to be fixed. The other issue is that he’s getting beat a lot between his body and his arm. Luckily for Askarov, this shouldn’t be a huge issue as the fix could be something as simple as a new chest protector.
A concern from many about goalies that make a lot of flashy saves is that they are making flashy saves that others can make routinely. Askarov loves the big glove save, but I don’t see it as a weakness. A lot of these crazy saves are a result of weak net front coverage or him hyping up saves. His MHL team was not good at taking away threats in front of the net. It led to a lot of opposing players having far more time than they should’ve. He also makes routine saves look flashy by making the save and then hitting the splits and flashing the glove.
Where Does He Stand?
Now it begs the question, how good can Askarov be? The comparison you’ll surely hear time and time again will be Andrei Vasilevsky. And while I don’t like player comparisons it is fairly accurate. They both play similar styles and have exhibited similar dominance at the same age. Although at this point Vasilevsky was the better player. Vasy was Russia’s starter at the U18s AT FIFTEEN and put up a .953 Sv% in his draft year at the U20 World Juniors. Although, likely due to him being a goalie and Russian, wasn’t drafted at the 19th spot.
Looking back, in a re-draft, Vasy goes 1st overall in the 2012 draft since the 1st pick was Nail Yakupov and the leading point getter is Filip Forsberg. Even without knowing what we do know I believe that his draft year was worthy of a top 2 pick.
Going back to Askarov, I believe he is worthy of a top 10, and maybe top 5, pick. For me, he’s fluctuating between my #5 and #7 spot. Although his biggest year is yet to come. I fully expect him to be the starter for the Russians at the World Juniors despite their (idiot) coach’s dislike for younger players. His only real competition should be Amir Miftakhov. He should dominate the MHL and possibly the VHL or KHL if he gets the promotion (although being in SKA’s system it’s unlikely due to the strength of the program). And he should go top 10 in the 2020 draft.
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