Insider says Colorado Avalanche among the teams who had interest in Askarov

Shortly after it was announced that he asked for a trade and wouldn't report to Nashville's AHL team in Milwaukee, the Predators moved on from Yaroslav Askarov, dealing him to the San Jose Sharks.

Being one of the best goaltending prospects in the NHL, there was no question there would be plenty of interest in the Omsk, Russia native and in the latest edition of 32 Thoughts, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman shared which teams were in the mix, including a couple of surprising ones.

In his article on Sportsnet, Friedman said that, along with the San Jose Sharks, the Montreal Canadiens, Utah HC, Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils were among those who expressed interest in trading for Yaroslav Askarov.

Seeing that Colorado and New Jersey were in the mix is a bit surprising. For the Avalanche, Alexandar Georgiev will head into the 2024-25 campaign as the team's starter, while Justus Annunen is poised to be the backup. Georgiev had a pretty solid season for the Avalanche, but had a sub-.900 save percentage and will look to improve in that category next season.

As for the Devils, they made a big splash earlier this summer, acquiring Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames, while Jake Allen will back up the veteran Swede. Given that Askarov believes he's NHL-ready, there likely wouldn't have been a spot on the Devils roster for him, at least to start the season.

The Sharks, who lacked an elite goalie prospect in their system, are now set between the pipes for the next decade with Yaroslav Askarov and is a great piece to their pool, led by Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith.

Source: Elliotte Friedman/32 Thoughts
32 Thoughts: A collection of late off-season notes