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West Notes: Boeser, Soderstrom, Edstrom

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The 2023-24 season was a breakout showing for Canucks winger Brock Boeser.  He reached the 40-goal mark for the first time while his 73 points were also a personal best.  Despite that, a contract extension doesn’t appear to be on the horizon as Thomas Drance and Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic report (subscription link) that there have yet to be any discussions about a new deal.  The 27-year-old is entering the final year of his existing contract which makes him extension-eligible.  He’s bound to be eyeing a raise from his current $6.65MM AAV with some potential comparables starting with a seven.  For now, it appears that Vancouver’s management wants to see if Boeser can have a repeat showing in 2024-25 before committing to what will be another long-term, big-money agreement.

More from out West:

  • In an interview with Mattias Ek of Hockey News SE, Utah RFA defenseman Victor Soderstrom expressed some frustration with how he was continually passed over for recalls with Arizona last season despite a solid performance that saw him put up 32 points in 62 games with AHL Tucson. The 23-year-old played in just three games for the Coyotes in 2023-24, giving him 53 career appearances at the top level.  Soderstrom didn’t rule out the possibility of signing overseas but acknowledged that a return to Brynas (where he spent most of his time before coming to North America) was unlikely for the 2024-25 campaign.
  • New Predators prospect David Edstrom spent last season on loan to SHL Frolunda after signing his entry-level deal with Vegas. However, it doesn’t appear as if that will be the case this time around.  In an interview with 102.5 The Game (audio link), Nashville GM Barry Trotz indicated that he envisions his new center playing big minutes with AHL Milwaukee.  Since Edstrom wasn’t drafted out of the CHL, he is AHL-eligible despite being just 19.  He played in 44 games in Sweden last season, picking up 19 points and should be counted on to produce a bit more than that in his first taste of action in North America.

San Jose Sharks Acquire, Extend Yaroslav Askarov

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The Nashville Predators’ number one goaltending prospect seems to have gotten his wish for a move outside of the Predators organization as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the San Jose Sharks are close to acquiring Yaroslav Askarov. According to a press release from Nashville, the Sharks will acquire Askarov, forward Nolan Burke, and Colorado’s third-round pick of the 2025 NHL Draft while sending away forward David Edstrom, goalie Magnus Chrona, and Vegas’ first-round pick in 2025.

It’s a major get for a rebuilding Sharks organization that was missing a true impact talent between the pipes. Over the past few years, San Jose has built up a nice young core of Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Sam Dickinson, Filip Bystedt, and Shakir Mukhamadullin but has since failed to procure a long-term goaltender. With Askarov now in the fold, the Sharks have a 22-year-old goalie who has done nothing but dominate in the American Hockey League over the last two years.

With his entry-level contract set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 campaign, the Sharks moved quickly on an extension for Askarov with his agent Dan Milstein announcing a two-year deal for the young goaltender. Shortly thereafter PuckPedia relayed that Askarov will earn a $1.7MM salary with a $200K signing bonus in 2025-26 and a $2.1MM salary in 2026-27 with an AAV of $2M.

Askarov’s rise to stardom didn’t happen overnight. He was ranked as the highest available European goaltender in the 2020 NHL Draft leading to him being the first one taken off the board with the 11th overall pick by the Predators. In his draft year, Askarov suited up in 18 games for the VHL’s SKA-Neva St. Petersburg where he produced a 12-3-3 record along with a .920 save percentage and 2.45 goals-against average.

The young Russian netminder spent a few more years playing in Russia’s junior league before signing his entry-level contract with Nashville in 2022 and joining the organization for the 2022-23 season. In his rookie season with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, Askarov put up a 26-16-5 record in 48 contests coupled with a .911 SV% and 2.69 GAA which immediately put him on the map as a legitimate high-end goaltending prospect.

Askarov gave the Predators a decision to make. Over nearly the last two decades, Nashville has had the privilege of high-end goaltending with the organization seamlessly transferring from Pekka Rinne to Juuse Saros. The Predators quickly began receiving trade calls for both Askarov and Saros before signing Saros to an eight-year extension earlier this summer.

Despite the trade chatter, Askarov dominated in the AHL once again this past season with a 30-13-1 record in 44 games with a duplicated save percentage. Despite another year of solid play between the pipes, the Predators signed goalie Scott Wedgewood to serve as Saros’ backup next year, leading to Askarov requesting a trade from the organization.

He may not get the starting minutes right away with the Sharks as the team already deploys Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek as their current options. Given the current competitive status of the team, however, Askarov will have every opportunity to earn the starting minutes down the stretch and could even be the Sharks undisputed starter by season’s end.

Heading back to Nashville is a nearly identical package that the Sharks received for forward Tomas Hertl at this past year’s trade deadline. Edstrom was originally drafted with the 32nd overall pick of the 2023 NHL Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights and has been working his way through the SHL with Frölunda HC on loan. The young two-way center brings solid awareness to both sides of the puck and should be a decent middle-six option for the Predators down the road.

Chrona will likely be deployed as a serviceable third-string goaltender for Nashville with a majority of his starts coming with the team’s AHL affiliate in Milwaukee. The University of Denver alum helped the Pioneers to their ninth National Championship in program history during the 2022 Frozen Four tournament. He finished his senior year with a 22-9-0 record in 31 games. Chrona signed with the Sharks as a collegiate free agent and made his debut with the team last year toward the end of the season where he collected one win in nine games on the heels of a .859 SV%.

The first-round pick, also acquired by San Jose in the Hertl trade, will be top-10 protected according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. If the draft choice were to fall in the top 10 of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Sharks would have the option of sending their pick or Vegas’ to Nashville.

Although Edstrom has decent upside as a forward prospect, he may not necessarily have the prospect pedigree that Nashville was originally looking for in exchange for Askarov to start the summer. However, the team still got much better in free agency with the acquisitions of Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei and now have three first-round picks for the 2025 NHL Draft.

Big Hype Prospects: Edstrom, Cuylle, Silayev, Konyushkov, Dvorský

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Welcome to PHR’s Big Hype Prospects series. Like the MLB Trade Rumors series of the same name, we’re taking a look at the performances of top prospects from across the hockey world. We’ll look at drafted prospects who are rising, others who are struggling, and prospects for the upcoming draft who are notable.

Five Big Hype Prospects

David Edstrom, C, Vegas Golden Knights (Frölunda HC, SHL)
7GP 2G 4A 6pts 13:13 ATOI

Drafted with the final pick of the 2023 first round, Edstrom was chosen on the back of a strong season at the J20 Nationell level in Sweden that included 11 games in the SHL with Frölunda’s senior team. A professional two-way center with a well-rounded game, there was a general belief that both Edstrom’s tools and overall style would translate seamlessly to the pro game, which is far more physically and mentally demanding than playing junior hockey against peers.

This season, Edstrom has so far passed all tests with flying colors. The rangy six-foot-two pivot has flown out the gates for Frölunda, tied for the team lead in scoring with six points in seven games. He’s flashed some serious skill along the way, and if he can keep up this kind of offensive production the public scouting sphere, which widely ranked Edstrom within the first-round/second-round bubble, may need to re-think what his true offensive upside looks like at the highest level.

That being said, it’s far from a guarantee that Edstrom will be able to maintain his spot atop his team’s scoring leaderboard. He’s still playing in a somewhat limited role with just over 13 minutes of ice time per game. That could very well be because Frölunda doesn’t want to overwhelm him and give him too much responsibility too soon, or it could also be an indication of how they plan to use him for the rest of the season. Either way, both management at Frölunda and in Vegas could not have envisioned a better start to the season for the 32nd overall pick.

Will Cuylle, LW, New York Rangers (Hartford Wolf Pack, AHL)
69GP 25G 20A 45pts (2022-23)

Unlike most prospects featured in this series, Cuylle has actually already made his NHL debut. The 21-year-old former captain of the OHL’s Windsor Spitfires received two NHL call-ups in early 2023, skating in four total games for the Rangers. He didn’t play much (the most ice time he received in any game was 7:46) but made his mark with a total of 10 penalty minutes.

Entering training camp, Cuylle was believed to be most likely heading back for a second season with the Wolf Pack, a team he led in goals last season with 25.

But as the New York Post’s Mollie Walker reports, Cuylle is under serious consideration for a role on Peter Laviolette’s opening-night roster on Broadway. Cuylle beat out veteran signing Alex Belzile to remain on the Rangers’ roster, and could very well end up factoring into the Rangers’ bottom-six mix sooner than expected

A six-foot-three power forward, Cuylle’s game has drawn stylistic comparisons to a player Laviolette coached for the last two seasons: Washington Capital Tom Wilson.

If Cuylle can even remotely resemble Wilson, who is making $6.5MM against the cap through the end of the decade, he could provide the Rangers with some serious value in their bottom-six.

Anton Silayev, RHD, 2024 draft prospect (Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo, KHL)
12GP 1G 5A 6pts 17:33 ATOI

Most North American hockey fans aren’t familiar with Silayev, which makes sense. He’s still just 17 years old, plays all the way in Russia, and has virtually no footprint on this side of the Atlantic. But soon enough, hockey fans this side of the Atlantic will come to know the name of Torpedo’s star rookie.

Silayev has been a revelation this season. In a league that is notoriously difficult for young players to succeed in, Silayev has managed six points in 12 games, averaging a healthy 17:33 time on ice per game. That’s earned him the KHL’s Rookie of the Month honors, and shot him up public NHL draft projections. TSN’s Bob McKenzie ranked Silayev ninth overall in his pre-season 2024 NHL Draft rankings, while The Hockey News had him all the way at the number-five slot.

So why is Silayev getting top-five buzz when just a month or two ago he wasn’t even in the conversation? First and foremost, it’s due to his tools. Silayev is a right-shot blueliner, something that is already coveted in the NHL, and he’s also six-foot-seven, 207 pounds. Right-shot blueliners at that size are exceedingly rare, so from a measurable perspective alone Silayev has enough to draw interest.

But that’s not the only aspect of Silayev that’s rare. Not only is a freakish athletic talent, he’s also the rare draft-year KHL defenseman playing regular minutes in Russia’s top league, and putting up points while doing so.

It doesn’t even end there. Silayev is also regarded as a strong skater overall, which is an exceptionally rare trait for someone that big and that heavy. His size and mobility combo makes him something of a “unicorn” prospect, and makes him arguably the most intriguing player to track in advance of the 2024 draft.

Bogdan Konyushkov, RHD, Montreal Canadiens (Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo, KHL)
12GP 1G 6A 7pts 24:18 ATOI

Even with all the buzz surrounding Silayev and his potential for the 2024 draft, one could make the argument that it’s Silayev’s teammate, Konyushkov, 20, who has actually had the most impressive start to the KHL season for Torpedo.

Konyushkov went undrafted in consecutive NHL drafts before he was selected 110th overall by the Canadiens in 2023. The Canadiens took a bit of a risk selecting a twice-undrafted player in the fourth round, but Konyushkov’s 2022-23 campaign where he scored 25 points in a regular role on a KHL playoff team likely gave them confidence. Konyushkov has more than validated that faith this season.

So far, the right-shot defenseman has scored seven points in 12 games and is currently leading all KHL defensemen in time-on-ice per game. He’s breaking out as a legitimate minutes-eating, all-situations number-one defenseman in the KHL, an extremely impressive feat for such a young player. While he doesn’t possess the measurables Silayev can boast, his KHL performance so far is extremely encouraging.

Konyushkov is under contract through 2025-26, so the Canadiens have a bit of a wait in store before they can bring Konyushkov to North America. But if he’s already leading KHLers in average ice time, there’s a legitimate possibility that Konyushkov will be able to step right into the NHL once he’s signed to an entry-level deal.

In any case, his success early this season gives the Canadiens an intriguing trio of right-shot defensive prospects who have excelled in top European leagues. (Konyushov, Adam Engström, David Reinbacher)

Dalibor Dvorský, C, St. Louis Blues (IK Oskarshamn, SHL)
6GP 0G 0A 0pts 12:15 ATOI

The St. Louis Blues don’t make top-ten picks very often, so when they spent their rare top selection on Dvorsky, it was something of a home run swing. Dvorský had performed exceptionally against his peers, scoring 13 points in just seven games at the IIHF Under-18 World Championships and a whopping 21 points in just 10 games in the J20 Nationell.

But against men in a professional setting, Dvorský couldn’t dominate in the same way. Pro players proved more resistant to Dvorský’s impressive physical tools, and the increased pace of the pro game made his lackluster skating more of an issue. He ended up scoring just 14 points in 38 games in the HockeyAllsvenskan with AIK.

This season, there was hope that more experience and physical maturity would allow Dvorský to succeed in the SHL, a full division higher than the league he played in with AIK last season. So far, that hasn’t happened. Dvorský is currently scoreless through six games with IK Oskarshamn, receiving just over 12 minutes of ice time per night on a team that currently ranks as the worst in the SHL.

There’s still more than enough time for Dvorský to push forward his production, but this early sample size of games does raise questions as to whether Dvorský is truly ready to be a top player in one of the world’s best pro leagues, especially seeing as he wasn’t a difference-maker in Sweden’s second division. He’s still just 18 years old and has all the upside in the world, but these first few games have led some to wonder if Dvorský’s development is best served in the SHL.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Golden Knights Sign David Edstrom

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The Golden Knights have signed their top pick from last month’s draft, announcing the signing of center David Edstrom to a three-year, entry-level deal.  Financial terms of the contract were not disclosed.

The 18-year-old was the final selection of the first round, going 32nd overall to the Stanley Cup champs.  Edstrom spent last season in Frolunda’s system, splitting time between their Under-18 team, Under-20 squad, and their SHL group.  The bulk of his action came at the Under-20 level where he was productive, notching 15 goals and 13 assists in 28 games.  Edstrom also didn’t look out of place in the pros, collecting two goals and two helpers in 11 contests while averaging just shy of eight minutes a night.  Internationally, he represented Sweden at the 2022 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup as well as the World Under-18s.

Edstrom is under contract in Sweden next season with Frolunda and it’s probable that he’ll be loaned back there where he’ll split time once again between the Under-20 team and the SHL squad.  If that happens, his contract will slide a year and still have three years left on it this time next summer.  He’s still likely a few years away from being NHL ready but Vegas feels that Edstrom should become a middle-six contributor for them down the road.

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