Yaroslav Askarov’s time with the Nashville Predators organization has come to an end. Following Askarov’s trade request first reported by Kevin Weekes on Monday, August 19th the Predators and GM Barry Trotz announced that the goaltending prospect has been traded to the San Jose Sharks. The full details of the trade are as follows:
- To Nashville – Conditional 2025 first round pick (VGK), center prospect David Edstrom and goalie prospect Magnus Chrona.
- To San Jose – Goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, center/wing prospect Nolan Burke and a 2025 3rd round pick.
Both David Edstrom and the 2025 first round pick were acquired by San Jose from the Vegas Golden Knights in the trade that sent forward Tomas Hertl to Vegas. The condition on the first round pick is that if the pick falls into the top 10, San Jose has the option to swap that with their own pick. Magnus Chrona is a former 5th round pick of the Lightning who has played one professional year following a very productive NCAA career at Denver. In that year he bounced between all three leagues (ECHL, AHL and NHL) and will likely spend the 2024-25 season in Milwaukee. Our man Eric provided some initial thoughts on Edstrom on X following the trade announcement:
Yaroslav Askarov spent four seasons in the Predators organization after being drafted 11th overall in the 2020 draft. He is widely regarded to be the top goaltending prospect in North America right now and is a heck of a lot of fun to watch. With the signing of Juuse Saros to a long term contract and backup Scott Wedgewood signing two years in Nashville, Askarov’s path to an NHL net was effectively blocked.
Over the past two seasons, he compiled 56 wins in 92 regular season starts with the AHL Milwaukee Admirals. Askarov also appeared in three NHL games for the Predators with two starts. His signature performance was making 27 saves on 29 shots in a shootout win over the Washington Capitals for his first career NHL win. In that game he stopped fellow Russians Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov in the shootout. Askarov joins a San Jose Sharks franchise in the midst of a significant rebuild with a very deep pool of talented prospects where he will have a greater opportunity to win an NHL job very soon.
