There have been few goalie prospects in the history of the New Jersey Devils who have fans as excited as they are for Boston University starter Mikhail Yegorov. Since the Devils selected Martin Brodeur in the 1990, they've taken seven other goalies in the first three rounds of the NHL Draft. Two of those goalies (Jean-Francois Damphousse and Ari Ahonen) were taken in the first round. Only Mackenzie Blackwood had similar hype to Yegorov.
The Devils traded John Marino to the Utah now-Mammoth for two second-round picks. One of those picks was used to take Yegorov. The other was used to take Ben Kevan, who we are really high on as well.
After Yegorov did some incredible things in his freshman season at Boston University, he skyrocketed up the expectations for fans of the Devils (and the Terriers). He beat Boston College to win the Beanpot for BU, and he took them all the way to the NCAA Championship Game.
That performance had us put Yegorov at the top of our Top 25 prospects list. He was ahead of former first-round pick Anton Silayev, top defensive prospect Seamus Casey, and new arrival Arseniy Gritsyuk. We obviously had him ahead of Jakub Malek, who was seventh on our prospects list at the time.
Turns out, the Devils disagree. New Jersey Devils assistant GM Dan MacKinnon just told NHL.com reporter Mike Morrealle that Yegorov is "a little bit behind" Malek.
"He'll be a little bit behind Jakub Malek, which is good because you want to stagger a little bit so not everyone is fighting for the net. That lays out really well for us to get a little more clarity of what our needs are going to be in a couple of years."Dan MacKinnon to NHL.com
That's a short quote, but a few takeaways make sense here. The Devils are bringing back Malek after letting him play overseas last year on a loan. Malek is expected to take over the starting job for the Utica Comets. He is ahead just in terms that he's directly in the Devils' organization, and Yegorov is still in college.
In fact, MacKinnon said Yegorov will stay in college for "at least one, maybe two" more seasons. If Yegorov does play two more seasons in the NCAA, one would hope he's one of the best player in college by the time he's ready to leave.
Another surprising fact is that MacKinnon didn't even mention Nico Daws, who is on a one-way contract and just had a decent season coming off injury. He was incredible in a short sample size in the NHL. However, there are rumors he could be on the move after the Devils re-signed Jake Allen.
Either way, it seems like the Devils have just as high of hopes for Malek as they do Yegorov. It seems like the future in net is here and could be ready to go by the time Jacob Markstrom's time in New Jersey is done.