12 Days Of New Jersey Devils Christmas
By Nick Villano
On the fourth day of Christmas the Devils gave to me… four years of Egor.
This one might be a little biased, but I’ve really liked how Egor Yakovlev progressed with extended ice time. He has a major language barrier, which has caused some communication issues, but the team is learning how to work around that. Besides that, you can tell he’s getting used to the difference in ice size, coming over from the KHL.
Right now, I’d say four years of Yakovlev would be perfect. Players take much less of a beating in Russia, so his 27 years of age is not like other players. He likely has three years of prime left, so the Devils would be smart to take them on.
Yakovlev is not a first-line guy, but he can easily be a second-line guy. He’s working well right now with Vatanen, and he’s minimizing his mistakes more as the games go on. He’s starting in the defensive zone a little more often than he’s started in the offensive zone, which might not be best for him. His advanced stats aren’t the best, but again he’s getting better with time.
He’s currently on a one-year deal, but if he can take another step forward, which seems like an inevitability, then the Devils should look at making him a part of their future. I think a three-year deal at a fair monetary value is easily doable. Adding him to the future that consists of Vatanen, Will Butcher, Damon Severson and Ty Smith, then the Devils realistically need one star on the defense to have a very, very good unit.