Sorry friends, I missed one of the draft picks before taking a few weeks off. Here’s a look at the Sharks’ final pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.
After drafting goaltender Christian Kirsch in the fourth round of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, the San Jose Sharks used the team’s last pick of the draft to take another goaltender — Yaroslav Korostelyov. The 18-year-old Russian netminder is a relative unknown and so we can’t find a lot of scouting analysis on him.
As Chris Morehouse, the Sharks’ scouting director, said on draft day, Korostelyov was second or third on the team’s list of goaltenders. That means there was something in his game that they liked. Given that he was the 194th pick in the draft, it makes sense that the Sharks would take a flyer on an incredibly unpredictable position like a goaltender.
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 161 lbs.
Age/DOB: 18, August 7, 2005
Catches: Left
SKA-Yunior Krasnogorsk (MHL): 16 games, 8-8-0, .931 save percentage, 3.07 goals against average
SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (MHL): 6 games, 4-0-2, 1 shutout, .936 save percentage, 2.16 goals against average
SKA-1946 St. Petersburg (MHL) Playoffs: 1 games, 0-1-0, .818 save percentage, 3.88 goals against average
Korostelyov is tall and lanky. At 6-foot-1, 161 pounds, there is literally no fat on this kid. While he’ll put on muscle over the next few years, he has the body type to help him move quickly around the crease.
What do scouts say about Korostelyov?
As we said before, there was very little scouting done on the journalistic level in regard to Korostelyov leading into the draft. No one seems to know anything except that he has good numbers in the MHL.
In fact, Sheng Peng on NBC Sports Bay Area had exactly one scout quoted about the netminder.
“He is a hugely underrated goalie, had an injury that hurt a little bit of his development,” the scout told Peng.
Listen, in the crapshoot that is the seventh round of the draft, if you snag someone that is “underrated,” you’ve probably already won.
What’s next for Korostelyov?
No one in the Sharks organization is kidding themselves into thinking that Korostelyov will be the next big netminder for the Sharks. In fact, everyone seems to know there will be a long road to development for the 18-year-old who turns 19 in August.
Expect Korostelyov to play in the MHL this season, and if he develops well, he could get a call-up to the KHL. That’s the best case scenario. Odds are he’ll need at least a season or two to mature in the MHL before he moves up to the top league in Russia. After that, it will take some more time to see how he develops before the Sharks even think about bringing him over to North America.
It will be several years before Sharks fans get to see him play in San Jose, if it happens at all.
