Something STRANGE is going on in San Jose...

With defense in such disarray the San Jose Sharks goaltending is in kind of an odd spot and with a newcomer incoming things are kind of shaken up a little bit. I wanted to continue on my theme of rising stars and yes I did see the comment asking for a video about Salin Valenius and I do really want to cover him so I pinky pinky promise that in the upcoming days I will do a video on him but we do have news about a young goaltender coming out the other day and we also already have another young goaltender in our system so I wanted to cover those guys before I get to Salin Valenius and our defense was so bad last year this past season that it actually kind of made it a little bit difficult to assess goaltending so there's a lot to look at here but before I get too into it I just want to remind you guys that we're still on twitter and our handle is still at sharks digest and we're still there to give you the latest news trades reports and rumors about the San Jose Sharks we can't always hop on a video but we can always send out a tweet plus it's just another way to chat with you guys and we love doing that so give us a follow and a shout at sharks digest on twitter now I want to start with our 24 year old 6'3 but still tiny 179 pound russian goaltender Yaroslav Oskarov so let's back up to the very beginning of his pro career fun fact about him he was not actually present when he was drafted because he was drafted in 2020 the COVID year he was drafted 11th overall by the Nashville Predators here's Roman Yossi with his pre-made jersey so clearly they knew they were going to pick him high and for a goaltender to be drafted 11th overall that's pretty impressive clearly he was a very very highly touted prospect so he was drafted very high up 11th overall in 2020 draft but could not actually physically be there because of COVID restrictions but in the 2022 2023 season so let's fast forward a little bit he did make his first appearance in the North American professional hockey sphere he did play one game for the Nashville Predators and it was a doozy it was not a great game he lost his goals against average was 4.15 and his save percentage was 88.6 so not the most fantastic first appearance but you know what had a really great season with Nashville's AHL affiliate the Milwaukee Admirals he was fantastic in 48 games played his goals against average was 2.69 and his save percentage was 91.1 and his record was 26 16 and 5 so he's really great he was named an AHL all-star and helped lead the Admirals to the playoffs where he was again pretty solid especially for his first professional playoff appearance in 12 games played he had a goals against average a 2.7 and a save percentage of 90.3 he split his appearances he had six wins six losses but still all things considered pretty pretty great so the next season 23 24 he he did he made double the appearances for Nashville he played two games this time and they were considerably better than his singular appearance the previous season so in his two games played with Nashville so he actually two games played he actually came in to relieve someone so his record is just he just has the one win but he won he still won and he was great his goals against average was 1.47 and he has saved percentage of 94.3 so really great two games for or a game and a half if you want to call it but still it counts as two played for him two great appearances for Askarov but again he played a good chunk of the season 44 games played with the Milwaukee Admirals and he was again really fantastic for them even better than the last season he had a goals against average of 2.39 and a save percentage of 91.1 and again named an AHL all-star he helped lead the Admirals to playoffs because his record during the regular season was 30 13 and one so he's really great he led them to the playoffs he not as good in the playoffs this time honestly in five games played his goals against average was 3.25 and his save percentage was 88.2 he had a record two three you know but he was still good enough again to be named an AHL all-star for the second year in a row and named to the AHL top prospects team but in the August of 2024 the Predators decided to trade him San Jose gave up forward David Edstrom and goalie Magnus Krona and a conditional first round 2025 pick in exchange for Yaroslav Askarov so we finally got him in a shark's sweater and in the 24 25 season when he first came to the Sharks his first season with the Sharks he played 13 games but the Sharks were honestly in a really tough spot back then and he was okay all things considered could have been worse his goals against average was 3.1 and his save percentage was again could have been worse 89.6 we could round that up to 90 his record was 4 6 and 2 but he did play a good amount of time with the Barracuda he had 22 games played with the Barracuda that season he had a goals against average of 2.45 so really great and a really great save percentage of 92.3 his record was 11 9 and 2 and again he third year in a row named an AHL all-star unbelievable three consecutive AHL all-star game appearances by Yaroslav Askarov again 22 games played goals against average of 2.45 and a save percentage of 92.3 he helped bring them to the playoffs where he was even better in his six games played in the playoffs he had a goals against average of 1.68 and a save percentage of 93.5 let's round that up to 94 and a record of 3 2 and 0 so he was really great not surprising the next season when he officially got the call to the Sharks this past season the 25 26 season when he was a permanent fixture in our lineup he had 47 games played and like I said in the beginning it was honestly really hard to tell if he was struggling or it was just defense hanging him out to dry because there was a lot of times where he really needed congestion in front of him and there was just absolutely nothing going on no one to break up the play at all so it was really just him against the shooter and we can't be having that so I think this season is gonna be a little bit better of a judgment of him because last season his goals against average was 3.63 and his save percentage was 88.4 his record was 21 20 and 4 so again hard to tell what was going on there he had flashes of being pretty good and reading the play really well but again we were really just saying good luck hope you can swim hope you don't mind being out on an island by yourself good luck with that so hopefully defense helps him out a little bit in this coming season I really hope so it really can't get any worse than it was last season so let's hope that we see better things from Askarov because he has a really good track record again he was drafted 11th overall and he had not one not two but three consecutive AHL all-star appearances so I think maybe we'll be seeing a better Askarov this coming season and we also had Nedeljkovic which he wasn't very good either to be honest neither of our goalies had a save percentage higher than 90 um his record was 40 games played uh goals against average of 2.87 which really isn't horrible but his save percentage was 89.6 so I guess we could round that up to 90 but still like not fantastic um he was a record of 18 14 and 4 he had a really really horrible debut um yeah we can't forget about this before this even happened he let up a really really soft goal it wasn't even a shot attempt it was just dumping it into the zone and it just went right into the net and then he got a little overzealous here in overtime and at first it was like whoa that's kind of cool then it was like oh no because they basically scored an empty net right after that so Nedeljkovic wasn't fantastic he wasn't horrible he really wasn't and neither was Askarov again a big part of what made our goaltending a little bit iffy was the fact that our defense was so bad because like you look at this where are the defensemen in this play why is he by himself so that's we'll see what happens but I say things are shaking up a little bit but honestly this newcomer we have another Yaroslav we have Yaroslav Korostelyov coming in the sixth one again really skinny we really like our skinny goaltenders 165 pounds the 21 year old 194th overall pick in the 2024 draft just let's go over his record really quickly so he was really great in the Russian version of juniors um he last or sorry the 24-25 season he actually had the best goals against average in the mhl um and was named the february goaltender of the month that season he's really great his his uh record holding that season goals against average was 1.53 he's really great his save percentage was 93.6 rounded up 94 and an impressive record of 23 and 0 he was really great and then this past season he was again really great in the mhl um goals against average 2.22 in 20 games played and a save percentage of 91.7 so let's call it 92 and a record of 14 5 and 0 and he played one game in the vhl which is basically the khl's version of the ahl so basically the russian minor professional hockey league he only played one game and it was a loss and a relatively tough one but he just terminated his contract with the khl with the intention of joining the san jose sharps organization and realistically he's joining the cuda or even wichita the echl we might see him in the preseason potentially just for funsies but likely askrov i feel like is gonna be our main guy going into the season but you know it's just something to keep our eye out for it's fun to have a pretty talented young goaltender coming in and again he's another hidden gem he's had a great track record and he was drafted really really really really late so something to look out for here again it shakes it up to an extent that we got two yaroslavs and we got two young goaltenders and maybe we see some competition or maybe everything stays the same it's hard to say but it is something to look out for and i'm excited to be able to get a better gauge on our goaltending this season because again our defense can only go up from this past season this upcoming season is definitely going to be an improvement and we'll get a better gauge on specifically askrov he has so much potential and i think last season okay could have been worse it really could have been worse but a lot of that was our very very poor defense but drop a comment below let me know what you guys think i love hearing from you guys and chatting with you guys i can't wait for this season go sharks