The St. Louis Blues have added an interesting goaltending prospect, signing Vadim Zherenko to a three-year entry-level contract. Zherenko spent this season playing in Finland, mostly for Ilves Tampere at the highest level.
Selected 208th overall in 2019, just a few spots from the end of the draft, the 6’3″ netminder has continued to develop his game overseas while the Blues kept a close watch. Before heading to Finland, he had been coming up in Russia and had huge success at both the VHL and MHL levels, even winning a championship in the MHL. In fact, he earned the playoff MVP for that run in 2021, going 10-1-2 with a .939 save percentage in 13 appearances.
While he didn’t have quite the same impact in Finland, Zherenko did post a .902 in 30 Liiga appearances. Given that he is still signed with Ilves for 2022-23, it seems likely that he’ll be loaned back overseas before next season begins, where he can continue to see ample playing time as his game grows.
If he does, it would still use up the first year of his three-year deal as the 21-year-old is not young enough to see the contract slide forward any longer.