Yaroslav Askarov
San Jose Sharks · 2026-27
6'3" · 180 lb · Age 24
+4.5
goals above a replacement goalie over 11 games
Percentile among 21 league goalies with 10 or more games. Method v0.1
The number over each bar is his percentile among 21 league goalies. Workload is not ranked.
2026-27: +0.01 (range -0.56 to +0.57). 2031-32: -0.12 (range -1.47 to +1.23). No dollar line yet: market value waits on a league contract table.
2026-27 regular season: 11 games, 657 minutes. Sources: NHL.com for the roster, the counting line and NHL Edge tracking; MoneyPuck for expected goals, on-ice chances, zone starts, blocks and penalties; PuckPedia and CapWages for the contract. Updated 2026-11-06. The rating and the forecast are this site's own, from public data, with the method published. All cards →
On the record
Called Shots →Alex Nedeljkovic makes 30 or more starts for San Jose in 2026-27.
Yaroslav Askarov finishes the 2026-27 NHL regular season with a save percentage of .900 or better for San Jose.
Will Smith finishes the 2026-27 NHL regular season with an on-ice goal share at five-on-five below 52 percent for San Jose.
San Jose finishes the 2026-27 NHL regular season with fewer than 89 standings points, after 86 in 2025-26.
Ilya Samsonov is not on San Jose's active NHL roster when the Sharks open the 2026-27 regular season against Florida on October 1, 2026.
Yaroslav Askarov's 2026-27 regular-season NHL save percentage is below .900 after San Jose's games of Dec. 29, 2026. WRONG if it is .900 or higher. If he plays no further games, it is scored on the figure as it stands.
Written about him
The Sharks' opponents miss the net more than anyone's. Last season, the least
Opponents have missed the net on 38.5 percent of their unblocked attempts against San Jose this season, the highest rate in the NHL, after the lowest rate in the league last season with the same two goaltenders. MoneyPuck's expected-goals measure credits a goalie for every miss, which puts Yaroslav Askarov about six goals above expected; counting only shots that reached him, scaled to the league's own conversion rate, he is about two above and Alex Nedeljkovic about three.
Nedeljkovic has started only on the road. Thursday is at home
San Jose has alternated starters for six games, with Alex Nedeljkovic stopping 140 of 155 shots across his road-only starts and Yaroslav Askarov stopping 108 of 113 in his latest three.
Two-fifths of San Jose's five-on-five chances missed the net
Buffalo shut San Jose out 2-0 as two-fifths of the Sharks' five-on-five expected goals came on shots that missed the net.
San Jose won five-on-five by its widest margin yet, and lost on the kill
San Jose's best five-on-five margin of the season was undone by its own penalty kill, which ranks 31st of 32 teams in four-on-five expected goals allowed per minute this season.
The Sharks won their opener on special teams and three-on-three
San Jose beat Florida 4-3 in overtime by winning the scoring outside five-on-five 3-1 while Askarov held off Florida in the tied third.
Preseason finale: San Jose survived Vegas for 40 minutes, then outshot it 11-4
Yaroslav Askarov stopped 27 of 29 shots in San Jose's 4-2 preseason win at Vegas. The Sharks took control of five-on-five attempts in the third period.
Grier replaced an injured goaltender with one waiting on immigration
San Jose's training camp roster, published September 16, lists 48 players and five goaltenders: Yaroslav Askarov, Eric Comrie, Alex Nedeljkovic, Matt Davis and Brady Knowling. The five goaltenders under NHL contract are Nedeljkovic, Askarov, Comrie, Ilya Samsonov and Kyle Keyser, per PuckPedia read September 18. On the first day of camp Mike Grier said Keyser is out with an upper-body injury for a couple of months at least, that the September 8 Samsonov signing was a response to that injury, and that Samsonov has not reached camp because he is waiting to be cleared by immigration. The club's September 8 release gave no reason for the signing. The NHL crease is untouched: Askarov, Nedeljkovic and Comrie were all on the ice Thursday.
Yaroslav Askarov's .883 Averages One Elite Month With Six Below-Average Ones
Askarov started 47 games last season and finished at .883, third-worst among the 27 goaltenders who started 40 or more. Split the season by month and the number comes apart: .944 across ten November starts, which was third in the NHL that month, and .864 across the other 37. MoneyPuck puts the damage on the easy chances: on low-danger attempts he was 23 goals worse than expected, more than his whole season's deficit, while on high-danger attempts he was 13 goals better. San Jose needs the second half of that sentence to be the whole player.
San Jose Has Five Goaltenders Under Contract And Not One Of Them Can Be Sent Down For Free
PuckPedia lists all five San Jose goaltenders under NHL contract as waivers eligible, read September 13: Yaroslav Askarov at 24, Kyle Keyser at 27, Ilya Samsonov at 29, Alex Nedeljkovic at 30 and Eric Comrie at 31. San Jose is one of eight clubs in the league with no goaltender under contract aged 23 or younger, against a league in which the median club has a 21-year-old signed. Samsonov signed a one-year two-way deal on September 8 after a season in the KHL. No take filed: it bounced at the desk price.
San Jose Needs Sixty Six Goals And Its Goaltender Can Find Half Of Them
Fifth in the NHL standings cost 106 points in 2025-26. San Jose finished with 86, and across all 32 teams points move with goal differential at a rate that turns those 20 points into about 66 goals. Yaroslav Askarov, moved from a .884 save percentage to the .909 that bought tenth place, is worth 33.7 of them by himself. San Jose's power play, fixed all the way to twelfth in the league, is worth 3.6. The penalty kill, which nobody puts on a list, is worth 9.8.
Being Exactly Average Made Alex Nedeljkovic The Best Goaltender San Jose Had
Alex Nedeljkovic made 34 of San Jose's 82 starts last season and posted a .896 save percentage, 2.87 goals against average and 21 quality starts in those 34 tries. Yaroslav Askarov made 47 starts and posted .883, 3.63 and 20 quality starts. By Hockey Reference's goals saved above average, Nedeljkovic was worth 0.6 goals more than a league-average goaltender and Askarov was worth 16.9 fewer, the fifth-worst mark among the 41 goaltenders who started 30 or more games. The backup is signed through 2027-28 at $3M. The starter has one year left at $2M.
The Askarov verdict: is he actually the franchise goalie?
The Askarov verdict: is he actually the franchise goalie?