One of the hottest trade sagas of the NHL summer ended on Friday afternoon after the San Jose Sharks and Nashville Predators struck a deal that sent top goaltending prospect Yaroslav Askarov out west to California.
Askarov, whose future in Nashville has seemed uncertain since the Juuse Saros extension, finally requested a trade earlier this week, after months of speculation. Predators general manager Barry Trotz struck quickly, choosing the Sharks among the top potential destinations. With players this young, it will take years to have any idea who truly “wins” this trade, but here are some initial grades based on what we know now.
Sharks Build From the Back in the Best Way
For a team in the Sharks’ position, deep into a long and painful rebuild, landing Askarov is an absolute coup. The old hockey adage insists that champions are “built from the back,” meaning that a good goaltender and reliable defensemen are key to building a young franchise. With Askarov, they got the best young goaltender in the world according to many analysts. The 22-year-old was selected 11th overall in the 2020 Draft and has continued to impress evaluators. Last season, with the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League, he posted a 2.39 goals-against average (GAA) and .911 save percentage (SV%) in 44 starts.
From a PR perspective, they’ve also now turned one of the worst blemishes on general manager Mike Grier’s resume into a positive. At the trade deadline last season, the Sharks moved longtime forward Tomáš Hertl and two third-round picks to their division rival, the Vegas Golden Knights, for defensive prospect David Edstrom and a 2025 first-round pick. That move was widely panned as a desperate, head-scratching move by analysts then.
Now, the two pieces they got in return for Hertl are Nashville-bound, and they’ve got the top goaltending prospect in the world coming into the organization. If Askarov flourishes and becomes the great netminder he is projected to be, then a trade that essentially became Hertl and some picks for Askarov will be remembered a lot more fondly. Undrafted free agent signee Nolan Burke is probably little more than a contract move, but he is just 21 and scored 50 goals with the Sarnia Sting in the 2022-23 season. And the third round pick the Sharks acquired helps replace one of the two they surrendered in the Hertl deal.
Related: San Jose Sharks 2024-25 Projected Lineup
With first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini already in the fold, along with top prospect Will Smith and a decent defensive backbone taking shape in Sam Dickinson and Shakir Mukhamadullin, there is finally a sense of excitement in the Bay Area again. The rebuild isn’t over, but few teams in the NHL have a trio of better prospects than Celebrini, Smith, and Askarov. Grier put his organization in a great position with this move.
Sharks Grade: A+
Trotz Deals With Trouble Quickly
The Predators were in an unenviable situation. Undoubtedly, Trotz hoped to move forward for at least a few seasons with the goaltending tandem of Saros and Askarov. When the latter’s trade request became public, he had to change his plans. And he wasted no time dealing with the situation.
The return the Predators got might be up for some debate. At the Draft, Nashville was rumored to only be willing to part with Askarov if it moved them inside the top five picks. Comparatively, a late-first-round pick and a late-first-round prospect that has already been traded twice since his draft year seems underwhelming. But Trotz was backed into a corner, and his negotiating partners likely knew it.
Edstrom will be the lynchpin of this deal. Already moved from the Vegas Golden Knights, who drafted him 32nd overall after winning the Stanley Cup in 2023, he is now joining his third organization before playing a single game. That could suggest that the two previous teams don’t value him highly, but that would be a mistake. It could just as easily indicate that three different teams wanted him badly. And now the Predators, an organization known for developing top defensemen, will get to mold him into a cornerstone of their blueline.
Goaltender Magnus Chrona adds an immediate goaltending prospect back into the Predators’ system, though one nowhere near the level of Askarov. The 23-year-old was drafted in the fifth round in 2018, and struggled in the AHL last season, posting a 3.49 GAA and .894 SV% in 31 games with the San Jose Barricuda. The Predators probably are not counting on him to develop into an Askarov replacement, but it’s good to have another young netminder immediately in the fold.
Nashville was backed into a corner here, and it’s hard to argue they got “fair” value for a prospect as good as Askarov. But they did alright considering the circumstances. They now have a new defensive prospect and three first-round picks in next season’s draft, which gives them a lot of ammunition if they are competitive come the trade deadline.
Nashville Grade: B
Time Will Tell
Prospects are fickle, and goaltending prospects are especially hard to project. But Askarov’s future looks about as bright as any goaltending prospect in recent memory, and he could well join his fellow Russians Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Samsonov, and Igor Shesterkin as the fourth face on the Mt. Rushmore of Russian goalies that have taken the NHL by storm (and that’s without even mentioning Sergei Bobrovsky). If he does, the Sharks will look back on this day as a trade that changed the course of their franchise. Even so, the Predators did respectably in managing a difficult situation and bringing it to a quick resolution without selling a valuable asset for no return. It will take time to know how this trade is truly remembered.