Itse en ole tästä kovin huolissani. Silayev oli yleisestikkin rankingien mukaan paras vapaana oleva pelaaja ja ei pitänyt olla mitään mahdollisuuksia, että olisi Devilsin vuorolla vapaana. Kansalaisuus on ainoa joka huolettaa tässä itseä, mutta se ei liity pelaajan kykyihin mitenkään tai siihen, että varasiko Devils parhaan pelaajan vai tarpeisiin. Ymmärtäisin tämän, jos Silayev olis ränkätty jonnekin ykköskierroksen 15-20 tienoille.
Tässä sen sijaan itseä huolettaa tuo, että Brodeur saanut päättää tuon kakkosvarauksen ja vähän puuhastelulta kuulostaa näin alkuun. En tiedä kuinka kova veska scoutti Martin on (vaikka kaikkien aikojen paras onkin) niin se ei takaa, että olisi veskascouttina kuitenkaan mikään ammattimies. Mielestäni ammattilaisten pitäisi nämä päätökset tehdä ja puuhastelun voi hoitaa muualla. Toivottavasti Brodeurin pelisilmä on vielä terävä ja tästä Devils saa tulevaisuudessa huippuveskan. Tässäkin kansalaisuus vähän huolettaa, mutta ainakin kaveri on lähtenyt jenkkeihin opiskelemaan niin uskoisi, että ajatus maailman menoista olisi lähempänä Zadorovia.
Loppuun vielä vahva suositus lukea kattava analyysi Silayeviin liittyen. Kopioitu suoraan hfboardsilta ja on nimimerkin "evnted" kirjoittama Devilsin osiossa Silayevin ketjuun.
Lou described it best with his orchestra analogy; the best teams are made up of players serving various, individual roles that, in combination, create a beautiful symphony. On the blue line, we currently have: a dynamic puck mover in Luke, a genius two-way threat in Nemo, an elite shooting defender in Dougie. Now? We get to add a physical, dominant, shutdown presence.
Let’s get this out of the way early: he’s huge. Silayev comes in at 6’7” 207lb, and you best believe that factors into his projection, majorly so. But, I want to quell the fears and make sure everyone knows this is NOT some size-centric selection by any means, and I’ll prove it by first discussing his game without his frame even factored in.
Silayev is not just a dominant shutdown presence, he is perhaps one of the best we’ve seen come through the draft. The player showcases an elite level understanding of the defensive position and he handles his own zone like a longtime veteran. His gap control is spectacular, he’s a complete menace in the corners fighting for pucks, his timing and anticipation are both excellent, and he defends middle ice like his life depends on it. In spite of his youth, Silayev’s defensive positioning is incredible, and every single movement he makes is deliberately calculated to suppress chances.
I hinted at it before, but he’s a physical beast, too. Not quite at the level of a Stian Solberg type bully, but Silayev is an absolute nightmare for opposing forwards to go up against in puck battles. The young defender absolutely owns the ice outside the crease and is more than willing to make anyone pay for trying to drive it. And while defending the rush? He’s always ready to crunch an opposing forward trying to streak in. Now, I don’t want this to come off like he’s only ever trying to kill forecheckers, he’s great at simply finishing checks and making proactive contact to take away space, but I imagine some huge checks will be a staple of his game long term.
Silayev is also an immaculate skater. Not perfect per se, his acceleration isn’t high end and his start and stop ability could use some work, but his four-way mobility is sublime and his top speed is quite fast. This is not a defender who is going to struggle against speed or get beat by cuts along the boards.
And perhaps the greatest aspect to his defensive game? He does all of this in combination. Silayev applies his effortless skating, great defensive stick work, and excellent physical edge in unison to beat forecheckers in a multitude of ways. He engulfs opposing forwards like a wet blanket, dampening their attack thanks to his contact, positioning, and active stick. And reminder, he’s doing this all at the KHL level against grown men (yes I said the line), we’re not talking about him beating up on children in a junior league.
Now then, take everything I just said, and scale it up a 6’7” 207lb beast. Every single aspect of his game gets that much easier to translate, and that much more effective with his reach and frame. Getting excited yet?
Of course, we certainly have some deficiencies to discuss, but I’ll present a bit of a caveat at the end. The biggest issue is that something changes with the player when he’s possessing the puck. The elite reads and anticipation are not always apparent. That’s not to say he doesn’t know how to handle the puck, but it feels as though, when trying to get it up to his forwards, he locks in on the first option he sees and commits to it, for better or for worse. So, sometimes you see him make sublime tape to tape passes that get a counterattack going quickly. Other times, you see him lob it straight to the other team, with our without being under pressure. Which side of him is the real one? I think there’s reason to believe in the good, he’s by no means getting lucky with the attempts that do connect, but it’s absolutely critical he open his eyes more and learn how to survey chances before committing, because he’s going to be pretty turnover prone if not.
One minor point to mention here is that Silayev, as a left shot defender, played a lot of RD this year. By no means can we use that as an excuse for his puck movement issues, very clearly you can load up tape and see him struggle from just about anywhere, but it does make it harder to get pucks up effectively when you don’t have the boards to rely on, so perhaps some of it could be influenced by that.
He's also not particularly skilled offensively, so anyone looking for points to validate the pick will be disappointed. Don’t let the historic KHL production fool you, either. He went on an (extremely unsustainable) early season hot streak that padded those numbers. Of course, that’s not to say he doesn’t offer anything offensively, his shot is relatively heavy for example, but no one should be expecting that much production. One positive, though, which could be a long-term benefit if built upon, is that his off-puck offensive zone movement shows flashes of very good ideas. This is a player who can activate, cerebrally attack pockets of space, and keep lanes open for his teammates to hit. We don’t see it a ton yet, and worse so is we didn’t even really see it in the MHL at the end of the year, but it does exist to a degree.
One last issue, which I really don’t care about but bares mentioning, is that his MHL playoff showing was bad. Straight up, just burn the tape bad. Minimal offensive contribution, sloppy puck management, and not even that great of shutdown play. This doesn’t really matter to me, though. Not only is it common for KHL level talents to underperform when sent down (his teammate Artamonov did the exact same thing), but it is quite easy to believe he was fatigued at that point. And, not to mention, his KHL playoff showing was so good that it seems silly to punish him for not playing down to the junior level. Still, it had to be said.
Now, what’s the caveat I was discussing? Well, I’ve already mentioned it: it’s the current composition of our roster. Silayev is not coming here to be a #1 or #2 defender, we already have young defenders who project to be that. He’s coming here to be an elite #3 who plays top penalty kill and eats a heavy, heavy defensive assignment. And guess what? That makes life easier for Luke and Nemo, too. They won’t need to be deployed in those types of roles as much now. His puck management, while still important to work on, is mitigated by the fact he has two of the best young defensive puck movers in the game next to him, as well as a forward core that’s absolutely loaded with them.
One positive for us is that Larionov looks to be an extremely forward-thinking coach, so I think we can trust that his development will be in good hands with Torpedo. Silayev, as well as fellow draft eligible Nikita Artamonov, were given unheard of opportunity to showcase their abilities at the KHL level, including even getting some power play reps at the start of the year, so I imagine Silayev will turn into a minute muncher sooner rather than later. Two years might feel long now, but as we saw with Luke in Michigan, it’ll fly by.
At the end of the day, every single team will want this player come playoff time. Every single one. And, while not the only reason, I imagine that’s a major factor why Tom and company picked him. Could you land a shutdown defender later in the draft? Certainly. Could you find one in free agency? Of course. Can you readily find a mobile 6’7” giant who’s already a proven shutdown beast in the second best league in the world as a teenager? Absolutely, positively NOT.
Simply put, this player should not have been available at 10. Bob’s consensus list from earlier this week did not just have him ranked 4th, it had him a near tier above all other defenders not named Artyom Levshunov. And, if we go further, he got as many votes as Levshunov did for top defender in the class. Two of my favorite outlets, Steve Kournianos and HockeyProspect, had him ranked 2nd and 5th, respectively. Every quote you can find from scouts raves about him, and if we factor in real scouting agencies, not just pie-in-the-sky armchair scouts, he was a near automatic top 5 selection. None of this is to say I bank my own opinion off of what other say, but it’s important to frame what the scouting community as a whole thinks of him.
And let me be honest here, while Silayev was my 9th ranked prospect, he was not my best available option, or next best, or next best, etc. But let’s focus just on the LD options because to me, given how the board shook out, that was the correct route to go. I liked the Dickinson pairing with our roster, definitely. But, Dickinson is nowhere near the shutdown guarantee that Silayev is, and while not to the same degree, he does showcase similar puck management issues. Buium? He’s awesome, and he went way lower than he should’ve, but even as a fan, that just didn’t seem to be a match given our roster. This goes back to the roster composition thing. What problem is he solving being on the team? What role is he filling? He would’ve been great, but he also would’ve been redundant to a degree. This pick is a big win for team composition.
Whether Silayev was your preferred choice or not, it is undeniable that he is a rare, immensely coveted archetype of player who will eat major minutes. He certainly has the potential to live up to the 10th selection, and potentially even overshoot it, but that’s secondary concern due to the nature of the player we’re landing and what he means to the overall composition of our blue line. We do have shutdown options in the farm and on the roster, that’s for sure, but nothing that even remotely compares to Silayev.
I cannot for the life of me imagine he comes in worse than something of a Tyler Myers. Is that what you want at 10? Absolutely not, but I’m saying, given his toolkit, advanced defensive game, and scalable success, I would be shocked beyond believe if he was not at least that good. What’s the upside, though? Probably something of a modern-day Chara, or even more physically dominant Bouwmeester. He has work do, absolutely, but this is a potentially special selection at 10.
And ultimately, that’s really what it boils down to. It is unfair that a team with a future blue line as good as ours is now adding this type of player, and I imagine anyone who’s currently down on the pick will inevitably see it that way long term. If Silayev can manage a measly 30 some points a season, at his size, with his mobility and advanced defensive game, and without being a turnover merchant, he will be seen as one of the best overall defenders in the league. Guaranteed.
Thank you, Tom, for wisely keeping the pick, and addressing a clear team need in the process. I promise you there were no Anton Silayev’s available on the trade market for 10th overall. This past season was unbearably bad, but I have no doubt Silayev’s long term value to the team will help ease the pain, in retrospect at least.
Let’s get this out of the way early: he’s huge. Silayev comes in at 6’7” 207lb, and you best believe that factors into his projection, majorly so. But, I want to quell the fears and make sure everyone knows this is NOT some size-centric selection by any means, and I’ll prove it by first discussing his game without his frame even factored in.
Silayev is not just a dominant shutdown presence, he is perhaps one of the best we’ve seen come through the draft. The player showcases an elite level understanding of the defensive position and he handles his own zone like a longtime veteran. His gap control is spectacular, he’s a complete menace in the corners fighting for pucks, his timing and anticipation are both excellent, and he defends middle ice like his life depends on it. In spite of his youth, Silayev’s defensive positioning is incredible, and every single movement he makes is deliberately calculated to suppress chances.
I hinted at it before, but he’s a physical beast, too. Not quite at the level of a Stian Solberg type bully, but Silayev is an absolute nightmare for opposing forwards to go up against in puck battles. The young defender absolutely owns the ice outside the crease and is more than willing to make anyone pay for trying to drive it. And while defending the rush? He’s always ready to crunch an opposing forward trying to streak in. Now, I don’t want this to come off like he’s only ever trying to kill forecheckers, he’s great at simply finishing checks and making proactive contact to take away space, but I imagine some huge checks will be a staple of his game long term.
Silayev is also an immaculate skater. Not perfect per se, his acceleration isn’t high end and his start and stop ability could use some work, but his four-way mobility is sublime and his top speed is quite fast. This is not a defender who is going to struggle against speed or get beat by cuts along the boards.
And perhaps the greatest aspect to his defensive game? He does all of this in combination. Silayev applies his effortless skating, great defensive stick work, and excellent physical edge in unison to beat forecheckers in a multitude of ways. He engulfs opposing forwards like a wet blanket, dampening their attack thanks to his contact, positioning, and active stick. And reminder, he’s doing this all at the KHL level against grown men (yes I said the line), we’re not talking about him beating up on children in a junior league.
Now then, take everything I just said, and scale it up a 6’7” 207lb beast. Every single aspect of his game gets that much easier to translate, and that much more effective with his reach and frame. Getting excited yet?
Of course, we certainly have some deficiencies to discuss, but I’ll present a bit of a caveat at the end. The biggest issue is that something changes with the player when he’s possessing the puck. The elite reads and anticipation are not always apparent. That’s not to say he doesn’t know how to handle the puck, but it feels as though, when trying to get it up to his forwards, he locks in on the first option he sees and commits to it, for better or for worse. So, sometimes you see him make sublime tape to tape passes that get a counterattack going quickly. Other times, you see him lob it straight to the other team, with our without being under pressure. Which side of him is the real one? I think there’s reason to believe in the good, he’s by no means getting lucky with the attempts that do connect, but it’s absolutely critical he open his eyes more and learn how to survey chances before committing, because he’s going to be pretty turnover prone if not.
One minor point to mention here is that Silayev, as a left shot defender, played a lot of RD this year. By no means can we use that as an excuse for his puck movement issues, very clearly you can load up tape and see him struggle from just about anywhere, but it does make it harder to get pucks up effectively when you don’t have the boards to rely on, so perhaps some of it could be influenced by that.
He's also not particularly skilled offensively, so anyone looking for points to validate the pick will be disappointed. Don’t let the historic KHL production fool you, either. He went on an (extremely unsustainable) early season hot streak that padded those numbers. Of course, that’s not to say he doesn’t offer anything offensively, his shot is relatively heavy for example, but no one should be expecting that much production. One positive, though, which could be a long-term benefit if built upon, is that his off-puck offensive zone movement shows flashes of very good ideas. This is a player who can activate, cerebrally attack pockets of space, and keep lanes open for his teammates to hit. We don’t see it a ton yet, and worse so is we didn’t even really see it in the MHL at the end of the year, but it does exist to a degree.
One last issue, which I really don’t care about but bares mentioning, is that his MHL playoff showing was bad. Straight up, just burn the tape bad. Minimal offensive contribution, sloppy puck management, and not even that great of shutdown play. This doesn’t really matter to me, though. Not only is it common for KHL level talents to underperform when sent down (his teammate Artamonov did the exact same thing), but it is quite easy to believe he was fatigued at that point. And, not to mention, his KHL playoff showing was so good that it seems silly to punish him for not playing down to the junior level. Still, it had to be said.
Now, what’s the caveat I was discussing? Well, I’ve already mentioned it: it’s the current composition of our roster. Silayev is not coming here to be a #1 or #2 defender, we already have young defenders who project to be that. He’s coming here to be an elite #3 who plays top penalty kill and eats a heavy, heavy defensive assignment. And guess what? That makes life easier for Luke and Nemo, too. They won’t need to be deployed in those types of roles as much now. His puck management, while still important to work on, is mitigated by the fact he has two of the best young defensive puck movers in the game next to him, as well as a forward core that’s absolutely loaded with them.
One positive for us is that Larionov looks to be an extremely forward-thinking coach, so I think we can trust that his development will be in good hands with Torpedo. Silayev, as well as fellow draft eligible Nikita Artamonov, were given unheard of opportunity to showcase their abilities at the KHL level, including even getting some power play reps at the start of the year, so I imagine Silayev will turn into a minute muncher sooner rather than later. Two years might feel long now, but as we saw with Luke in Michigan, it’ll fly by.
At the end of the day, every single team will want this player come playoff time. Every single one. And, while not the only reason, I imagine that’s a major factor why Tom and company picked him. Could you land a shutdown defender later in the draft? Certainly. Could you find one in free agency? Of course. Can you readily find a mobile 6’7” giant who’s already a proven shutdown beast in the second best league in the world as a teenager? Absolutely, positively NOT.
Simply put, this player should not have been available at 10. Bob’s consensus list from earlier this week did not just have him ranked 4th, it had him a near tier above all other defenders not named Artyom Levshunov. And, if we go further, he got as many votes as Levshunov did for top defender in the class. Two of my favorite outlets, Steve Kournianos and HockeyProspect, had him ranked 2nd and 5th, respectively. Every quote you can find from scouts raves about him, and if we factor in real scouting agencies, not just pie-in-the-sky armchair scouts, he was a near automatic top 5 selection. None of this is to say I bank my own opinion off of what other say, but it’s important to frame what the scouting community as a whole thinks of him.
And let me be honest here, while Silayev was my 9th ranked prospect, he was not my best available option, or next best, or next best, etc. But let’s focus just on the LD options because to me, given how the board shook out, that was the correct route to go. I liked the Dickinson pairing with our roster, definitely. But, Dickinson is nowhere near the shutdown guarantee that Silayev is, and while not to the same degree, he does showcase similar puck management issues. Buium? He’s awesome, and he went way lower than he should’ve, but even as a fan, that just didn’t seem to be a match given our roster. This goes back to the roster composition thing. What problem is he solving being on the team? What role is he filling? He would’ve been great, but he also would’ve been redundant to a degree. This pick is a big win for team composition.
Whether Silayev was your preferred choice or not, it is undeniable that he is a rare, immensely coveted archetype of player who will eat major minutes. He certainly has the potential to live up to the 10th selection, and potentially even overshoot it, but that’s secondary concern due to the nature of the player we’re landing and what he means to the overall composition of our blue line. We do have shutdown options in the farm and on the roster, that’s for sure, but nothing that even remotely compares to Silayev.
I cannot for the life of me imagine he comes in worse than something of a Tyler Myers. Is that what you want at 10? Absolutely not, but I’m saying, given his toolkit, advanced defensive game, and scalable success, I would be shocked beyond believe if he was not at least that good. What’s the upside, though? Probably something of a modern-day Chara, or even more physically dominant Bouwmeester. He has work do, absolutely, but this is a potentially special selection at 10.
And ultimately, that’s really what it boils down to. It is unfair that a team with a future blue line as good as ours is now adding this type of player, and I imagine anyone who’s currently down on the pick will inevitably see it that way long term. If Silayev can manage a measly 30 some points a season, at his size, with his mobility and advanced defensive game, and without being a turnover merchant, he will be seen as one of the best overall defenders in the league. Guaranteed.
Thank you, Tom, for wisely keeping the pick, and addressing a clear team need in the process. I promise you there were no Anton Silayev’s available on the trade market for 10th overall. This past season was unbearably bad, but I have no doubt Silayev’s long term value to the team will help ease the pain, in retrospect at least.
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