New Jersey Devils stand pat, draft Anton Silayev
New Jersey Devils stand pat, draft Anton Silayev
The Devils used yet another top pick on a defenseman as Silayev unexpectedly fell onto their lap.
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Despite all the noise surrounding the New Jersey Devils and their willingness to move the 10th overall pick, no trade materialized.
Instead, Tom Fitzgerald kept the pick – likely the highest the team will have for quite some time – and added another quality prospect to the organization in left-handed defenseman Anton Silayev.
Silayev is an absolute monster at 6’7’ and well over 200 pounds at just 18 years of age. He skates very well – not just for a player of his stature – and that ability coupled with his size, reach, and instincts give him the potential to be a high-end defense-first defender.
Silayev was ranked the 5th best player in this year’s class by HockeyProspect while he came in at No. 4 on Bob McKenzie’s list, which was based entirely off the opinions of NHL scouts.
Scouts cited in McKenzie’s final rankings were enamored by Silayev’s defensive potential. Excerpt below:
“At the end of the day, all that really matters is that he’s a 17-year-old who played regularly in the KHL and played well and showed he has all the tools be a shutdown NHL defender who can still skate and carry or pass a puck up the ice,” said a scout. “That’s a unicorn.”
“He’s going to be an elite defender,” another scout said. “A huge minute muncher. That and that alone provides huge value, but he’s not without some offensive ability, but it’s most definitely secondary.”
Silayev joins a remarkably impressive young stable of defenders featuring Luke Hughes, Simon Nemec, and Seamus Casey.
Although he doesn’t have close to the same level of offensive upside as those players, he projects to be a lockdown defender who can nicely complement more of a risk-taker.
Given the way the Devils are built, and Fitzgerald’s want to add differing elements to the organization, Silayev seems like a nice piece to add to the puzzle.
I’ll be diving deeper into Silayev, and breaking down several of his games, in the coming weeks. You know where to read my findings!
If this kid becomes what the scouts think he can, the devils got themselves something the organization has lacked for decades and a perfect complement to their other your defenseman. Pair him with Hughes and he can cover the backend while letting Luke cook. Pair him with Nemec and you have your shutdown pair. No matter what the Devils will be built from the back out like their championship teams were.
The Athletic says his comparable is Zdeno Chara. I'll sign up for that any day of the week. lol