Top New Jersey Devils prospect Anton Silayev will have a bit of a wrench thrown in his development next season as his KHL club, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, will be searching for a new head coach this offseason.
On Monday, it was announced that former Devils forward and hockey legend Igor Larionov would be leaving Silayev and Torpedo, replacing the fired Roman Rotenberg as head coach of KHL powerhouse SKA St. Petersburg. Rotenberg, of course, was Arseniy Gritsyuk's head coach for the last two seasons.
So, why is this a big deal for Silayev? Well, Larionov has worked with Silayev for his whole KHL career, knows the NHL, knows what habits NHL teams want, and, most importantly, had a vision for Silayev's development.
"I played against [Nick Lidstrom] during the practices in Detroit. But when you’re on the ice with him, you want to be on the ice with him because he knows the little details to make a little play, how to join the rush, how to get the puck to an open area," Larionov told The Athletic of Silayev ahead of the 2024 NHL Draft. "He was a solid, solid defenseman, not flashy, but incredibly smart. That’s what I want to do with Silayev."
And, in more practical terms, what did that mean for the Devils prospect? Off the ice, Larionov used some less conventional coaching methods to teach the young Silayev things that will help his game and round it out further.
"I told Silayev, just watch a YouTube video of [Borje Salming] operating, skating, moving the puck, shooting the puck and joining the rush and playing smart, blocking the shots. All those little details, you kind of want to tell the kid, when you have so much information, you want to be able to absorb that," Larionov said. "But, sometimes you need time to settle down all this information in your head, and then you start to bring those parts of the game to the real game on the ice. Basically, he can do a lot of things, but I don’t want to put so much pressure or so much expectation on a 17- or 18-year-old kid, still young. It’s a learning process. He’s a good kid."
Prominent Devils' prospect Anton Silayev has new coach to help his development
And a big year is ahead for Silayev in terms of development, too. The 19-year-old just finished his second full season in the KHL, posting almost identical offensive numbers to last year. After Torpedo's season ended, Silayev joined Torpedo-Gorky NN in the VHL, picked up a goal and an assist in 17 games, and won the Petrov Cup alongside fellow NHL prospects Nikita Artamonov, Bogdan Konyushkov, and Kirill Kirsanov.
The 2024 No. 10 overall pick's contract with Torpedo will expire at the end of the 2025-26 season, and from there, it is presumed he'll sign with the Devils and begin his NHL career. How he deals with losing a big proponent in Larionov at this stage in his development remains to be seen.
EliteProspects currently lists Alexei Isakov, who won the VHL with Silayev this season, as Torpedo's next head coach. The 49-year-old will be coaching in the KHL for the first time.