By signing Yaroslav Askarov, the San Jose Sharks were able to add another top talent to their already well-filled pool of young goalkeepers.

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Askarov is a 22-year-old former first-round pick with an excellent pedigree. The only problem with him is that he only has three games of NHL experience under his belt. With Mackenzie Blackwood still on the team, Askarov likely won’t be the team’s No. 1 goalie right away.

The goalie immediately becomes the best goalie prospect in the system and could be considered a top five prospect regardless of position. Many hockey junior media outlets have praised Mike Grier’s work in expanding the talent pool in a short period of time.

Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith and Quentin Musty are the future stars of the Sharks forwards. Sam Dickinson has the potential to become a No. 1 defenseman in the NHL. The only thing the Sharks were missing was a promising goalie.

Related: Six Sharks among The Athletic’s top 100 draft prospects; Celebrini tops the rankings

The Athletic ranked Askarov as the second-best goalie prospect in the NHL.

“I think it’s starting to become clear, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Grier said of the Sharks’ rebuild. “I have to give a lot of credit to the staff here for the support. Our amateur (and) pro scouts have done a really good job. They’ve worked hard. They’ve seen these players; they’ve done the work. We’ve been able to turn some of these players into pretty valuable players and recruit some good players.”

According to Grier, the Sharks believe Askarov can be a future star in the NHL.

“We talked about the competitiveness earlier, but the size, the athletic ability, the way he reads plays. He can handle the puck as well. When you have that size and the ability to anticipate and read plays, along with his athletic ability, I think it’s going to come down to him putting it all together,” Grier said of the young goalie. “We’re very confident he’ll be the number one pick. You don’t get a lot of chances with players like him.”

Grier believes more work is needed to further strengthen the Sharks, but since taking office in the summer of 2022, the GM has laid the foundations of his vision.

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