Carolina Hurricanes Prospects: Goalies

 

Welcome to the start of a new series where I will go through the Carolina Hurricanes prospect farm, pick out a position group, and update everyone on these players. These updates will consist of how they played this past season, what strengths and weaknesses are in their game, and a projected (if there is one) NHL timeline. These lists will also be a ranking of the position as well, with players listed higher being the guys closer to the NHL and with more potential. Exciting times ahead but first, let’s look at the goalie crop within the Carolina Hurricanes. There’s one goalie who has higher hopes and expectations than the others, but there is still some intrigue between the others.

Ruslan Khazheyev

The cream of the goalie crop in Carolina, Khazheyev is an exciting goaltender. Standing at 6’4 at just 19 years old, he’s a rather large goalie and he knows how to use that size to his advantage (sometimes). This past season, Khazheyev spent the year with Belye Medvedi in the MHL, putting up a 2.34 Goals Against Average and a .922% Save Percentage. For a 19-year-old, that is pretty solid. Khazheyev also made his VHL debut, making 23 of 24 saves in a 4-1 win.

If I had to describe Khazheyev’s style, imagine if Pytor Kochetkov was slightly taller and slightly lankier. Khazheyev is ultra-aggressive in the crease, always near the top challenging a shooter. His mechanics are solid, having the ability to flash the glove when needed and never being completely out of position on any certain shot. The one wish I had for Khazheyev was for someone to tell him to trust his size more. He can sometimes be a little too passive and just shrink in the net, I’d rather see him challenge every shooter with confidence instead of shrink.

Overall, I am a huge Khazheyev fan. I think he can be the future of the Canes goalie position if he keeps up the development path he is currently on. Khazheyev signed his ELC after his season was over so I am going to keep a rather close eye on how he does with the Chicago Wolves next year. For an NHL timeline, he’s still a little bit away so don’t expect to see him challenge for an NHL job anytime soon.

NHL Timeline: 2025+

Nikita Quapp

This is where the list gets freaky as after Khazheyev, there isn’t a clear-cut second best. For the sake of the list, I have Quapp, 21, as the second-best goalie as he’s played the most games at a level above Junior hockey out of everybody else on the list. It’s not to say Quapp is a bad goalie, as this past year he had a 2.63 Goals Against Average and a .920% Save Percentage in the second tier of German hockey. He also played a part in Eisbaren Berlin winning the DEL title, in which he played in 2 regular season games.

The good: Quapp is another bigger goalie, standing at 6’4. He’s incredibly sound in his game, nothing being outstandingly bad to the point that he’s unplayable. His blocker side is the stronger side of the two, with his glove not tracking that far behind. The bad is that he’s been able to dominate the second tier of German hockey but just can’t seem to put it together at the top level. Maybe that changes, as Quapp signed a contract with Dusseldorfer EG in the DEL but until he starts in more than 5 games, I’m not holding my breath.

Overall, Quapp is interesting. I think there is something there if he can put together a good year in DEL but until that happens, it’s tough to see. His contract with Dusseldorfer runs through the end of the year so maybe he comes over to North America after that. We will always have his WJC performances against Canada to hold us over.

NHL Timeline: ???

Yaniv Perets

The prized college UFA goalie signing, Perets had a solid enough rookie year. With the Norfolk Admirals in the ECHL, he had a 3.02 Goals Against Average and a .888% Save percentage in 44 games played. Perets also got some NHL time due to injury and even got his NHL debut, making 12 out of 12 saves in relief in a game against the LA Kings.

I’d say that Perets is well ahead of the pack, mechanically, compared to all the other prospect goalies. His game is a lot more refined since he had all those years with Quinnipiac and faced top competition over the years he was there. But that also limits the ceiling of the 24-year-old, being that I don’t know how much more growth there is left in his game. Perets is also not the biggest goalie, standing at just 6’1 and 181 pounds, so I’d say he needs to add weight onto that frame.

Overall, Perets ceiling caps at around an NHL backup and that’s ok! You always need to have backups and Perets would be a great one. I’m interested to see what he does this year as he will probably split time between the AHL and the ECHL.

NHL Timeline: ???

Yegor Velmakin

Sometimes taking an overage goalie pays off, especially with a pick in the late 200’s. It’s too early to tell with Velmakin but there are some things to be encouraged by. The 21-year-old had a very weird year, going from playing well over 30 games last year to just 15 this year between the KHL and the Belarus league. In the KHL, 2.89 Goals Against Average and a .868% Save Percentage in 7 games. In the Belarus league, Velmakin had a 2.65 Goals Against Average and a .926% Save Percentage.

If you shoot low on Velmakin, it’s probably not going in. Anything below his waist is where he excels, getting into position faster than most and being able to make kick saves look more than routine. His glove is also good, being in position 90 percent of the time and having the reaction time to normally make up the other 10 percent. The big issue with Velmakin’s game is that he has zero aggression in the crease. He’s more than comfortable just hanging back in the crease rather the going out and challenging a shooter.

Overall, Velmakin is one of the goalies of all time. It’s tough to find information and clips about the Belarus league unless you’re there which I don’t believe I am. As of now, he’s one of two contracted goalies for Dinamo Minsk in the KHL so I would bet he gets to start his year there, where I am interested if he can improve his game.

NHL Timeline: ???

Jakub Vondras

The goalie drafting strategy is glaringly obvious from the Canes, for the most part, find a goalie at 6’4 and hope they develop well. Vondras is no exception and he’s also a pretty decent goalie to go along with it. Taking a rather huge step up in competition from the Czech U20 league to the OHL, he posted a 3.71 Goals Against Average and a .867% save percentage. Now, those stats might not look great but please know, going from playing against a league that had (1) drafted skater to playing against a lot of players that are going to be drafted in this year’s draft, have been drafted already and guys that probably go within the top 5 (looking at one of you, Sam Dickinson and Cayden Lindstrom), Vondras did better than expected.

Vondras is mechanically sound with solid skating. His aggression stands out, not being afraid to attack shooters. This has gotten him in trouble at times but is normally not harmful to his game. The issue is that nothing stands out within his game. Vondras also seems to get rattled a little easier than most, which can be worked with and also wasn’t overwhelmingly obvious from my viewings of him.

Overall, I think Vondras has a lot of room to grow. His size helps in this regard plus his play during the bronze medal game at the World Juniors gave me hope that he has another gear in his game. I do wonder where he plays this year though, as he isn’t contracted to a team for next year.

NHL Timeline: ???

Patrik Hamrla

After two solid seasons with Rimouski Oceanic in the QMJHL, Hamrla signed a contract with Ilves in Liiga for this past year. A rather large step up in competition for the 21-year-old, I was interested in seeing where that led him. Well, unfortunately, Hamrla never got his Liiga debut as their goalie situation turned out better than they thought and he ended up splitting time in the Metsis where he posted a 4.10 Goals Against Average and a .870% Save Percentage.

The Good: His mechanics. His size (6’3).

The Bad: His brain (sometimes). Aggression.

Overall, I get confused by Hamrla. I think there is legit potential in there for a backup at the NHL level but the step up in competition was a big step that proved to be a little too big. He did post a shutout in his last game in the Metsis, which is encouraging to see. Hamrla isn’t contracted with a team for this upcoming season so I am a little curious to see where he plays this upcoming year.

NHL Timeline: ???

Yegor Naumov

Honestly, I didn’t even know the Canes still kept his rights but they do, so Naumov gets his own rank. As I understand it, Naumov has dealt with some leg injuries over the past two years that have kept him out of action until really late in this past year where he got to play in his first game since the 2020-21 season. In the 5 games he played with Arktika Murmansk in the NMHL, Naumov had a 5.51 Goals Against Average and a .891% Save Percentage. Since it’s incredibly hard to get clips from the NMHL and he’s only had 5 games in the past 4 years, I will just give Naumov the best hope I can and hope I get to see some more games from him soon.

Thank you all for reading these! This took a lot out of me trying to comb through footage for everyone and get these write-ups out every week. I appreciate everyone for reading these and hope you have a better understanding of the Canes prospect farm. I’ll do one last article covering the draft and then this page might go dark for a little bit.