The Anaheim Ducks will be selecting third overall in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft. There are several directions the Ducks can take with making that pick and one of them is the monstrous defenseman from Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL, Anton Silayev.

The 2024 NHL Draft Lottery was held on Tuesday, May 7, and was won by the San Jose Sharks who will be selecting first overall. The Anaheim Ducks will select third.

Anaheim Ducks Will Select Third Overall in the 2024 Draft

The undisputed top prospect the Sharks will almost certainly select is the standout Freshman center from Boston University, Macklin Celebrini. After Celebrini, there is an extremely murky tier of 5-10 players who could each make a case as the second-best prospect in the 2024 NHL Draft. Each of those players has one or two significant question marks, however.

This series will spotlight five of the most common names atop the rankings of expert NHL Draft outlets.

Anton Silayev

Anton Silayev might not be just the most unique player in this year's NHL draft, but one of the most unique we've seen in recent memory. His 6-foot-7, 207-pound frame is the trait that will stick out the most when evaluating this player. However, the way he combines his tremendous skating ability with his otherworldly reach is why he's viewed as a unicorn who can offer an unmatched potential shutdown ability.

Silayev played the entirety of the 2023-24 regular season with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL and totaled three goals and eight assists in 63 games.

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He played in all five of his team's playoff games (tallying a pair of assists) as his team lost their opening series to SKA St. Petersburg 4-1. 

Silayev finished off his 2023-24 campaign playing ten MHL (U20) games for Chaika Nizhny Novgorod where he played a larger role and tallied three assists as his team lost in the semi-finals.

As is the case with many U18 prospects in top-division European leagues, Silayev played limited minutes (about 15 minutes per night) and simplified his game to stay in the nightly lineup.

Silayev is signed to a KHL contract set to expire after the 2025-26 season.

The Potential Upside

Anton Silayev's ceiling is something we've never experienced when it comes to a shutdown defenseman in the NHL. His size, refined forward stride, four-way mobility, and his reach effectively shrinks the ice considerably for attacking players.

On the forecheck, he can read rushes fairly well and can close on seemingly open outlets instantaneously and kill a rush before it's started. If he mistimes a pinch, his recoverability makes it so attackers are never out of the woods.

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Defending the rush, he practically eliminates the entire neutral zone singlehandedly. Early in the season, his gap was slightly larger than ideal, but as the season progressed, puck carriers saw their time and space vanish and were forced to dump a puck or risk Silayev sealing them along the boards at the offensive blueline.

Silayev is alert and active in defensive zone coverage and translates that closing ability to the tight areas of the ice. With his reach, he can eliminate seams and force poor angle attempts.

He doesn't spend very much time with the puck on his stick but has the patience and protection skills to fend off a forecheck and move it to a teammate up ice.

The Potential Downside

Silayev's skillset is highly translatable to the NHL. His floor is seemingly that of a penalty-killing bottom-pair defenseman. 

He plays a very "meat and potatoes" game, so the question remains if he has enough puck skills and offensive awareness to regularly contribute in transition and produce on the scoresheet. Will he be able to read the second layers of a forecheck and make a smart little slip pass to a supporting teammate?

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Though he is proficient at recovering from misreads and mistakes, he may not be able to recover at the same rate against the most talented hockey players in the world in the NHL.

The Potential Fit (with the Ducks)

It's important to note that Silayev, as a left-shot defenseman, primarily played on the right side for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod in 2023-24. 

Though the Ducks have several young, highly skilled left-shot defensemen, Silayev offers a complementary skillset they lack within the organization's pipeline on defense. He can allow his partner to fully explore the limits of their offensive capabilities.

His contract expires the same year as Cam Fowler's and Radko Gudas', so he can seemingly slide into one of their spots in the lineup when the time comes.

Potentially pairing Silayev with a defenseman like Pavel Mintyukov, who is far more puck-dominant and offensively inclined yet possesses a lot of the same play-killing tendencies, could effectively shut down any rush attack at any point and turn it quickly into a chance the other way, rendering them one of the future's most unique and potent two-way pairs in the NHL.

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