Mikhail Yegorov offers "huge upside with his quickness and with the way he covers a lot of the net," Al Jensen of NHL Central Scouting said on the "NHL Draft Class" podcast.
Yegorov (6-foot-4, 179 pounds) was 8-25-3 with a 3.86 goals-against average, .892 save percentage and one shutout in 43 regular-season games with Omaha of the United States Hockey League. He faced the fourth-most shots in the USHL this season (1,262) and the Lancers averaged a league-low 2.58 goals-per game.
He is No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American goalies for the 2024 Upper Deck NHL Draft.
"He didn't play much at the start of the year but became the starter and played a lot throughout the second half of the season," Jensen said. "He has a huge upside just the way he plays the game; he's very smart and his technical game is sound. For a 6-foot-4 goalie, he moves well and has great structure in his game. If you draft him, work with him and in 4-to-6 years watch this kid.
"I just saw a huge upside with him and it was actually an easy choice for me to put him at No. 1 in the final rankings."
Jensen also has been impressed by Carter George (6-1, 196) of Owen Sound in the Ontario Hockey League.
"His game is as good as ever," Jensen said. "And him being bumped down to No. 2 (from No. 1 at the midterm rankings in January) has nothing to do with his play; it's just because of Yegorov and his NHL potential as well. George was probably one of the most consistent goalies I've seen all year."
Co-hosts Adam Kimelman and Mike G. Morreale also discussed with Jensen how mentoring younger goalies today has changed over the past 20 years, as well as his thoughts on Nicholas Kempf (No. 4) and John Parsons (No. 13) of USA Hockey's National Team Development Program Under-18 team.
The podcast is free, and listeners can subscribe on all podcast platforms, including iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts. It also is available on NHL.com/multimedia/podcasts and the NHL app.
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Listen: New episode of NHL Draft Class
