The New Jersey Devils finally announced they signed Russian defenseman Egor Yakovlev to an entry-level deal. There’s a lot of upside with this current contract.
It’s official. Russian defenseman Egor Yakovlev is a member of the New Jersey Devils. This move has been rumored for weeks, but it just took some time to hammer out the details and make it official.
This is basically a one-year deal, which doesn’t give the Devils a ton of time to test the waters. Since he’ll be 27 years old, he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the season.
Now that we’re here, what can we expect from Yakovlev? He’s a good puck mover, while doing a good job at keeping pucks away from the net. Sure, it’s easier to do against lesser competition in the KHL, but he was a part of the success of the Olympians from Russia team that won the gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
He isn’t going to add offense like Will Butcher, but he can help move the puck out of the defensive zone and start a rush the other way. He only scored nine points for SKA St. Petersburg in 35 games this year. Five of those points were goals. That makes sense in the KHL, which moves the puck more with a bigger ice to play with.
Yakovlev has upside, but he likely needs some time in the AHL before making the jump. He needs to get used to the North American style of play, after spending his whole life in the Russian systems. It could be a very good signing that shows how well Ray Shero’s front office is doing with their overseas scouting.
Yakovlev has an uphill battle to make the team as currently constructed. He’d have to leapfrog Mirco Mueller, Steve Santini and Jacob MacDonald (if he’s re-signed). Even if the Devils let John Moore walk and replace him with nothing (which is unlikely) the Devils have enough to fill out the roster without forcing Yakovlev into the lineup before he’s ready. He could get a mid-season call up, but don’t expect to see him for months after training camp.