Last month, I discussed how the San Jose Sharks will need more out of Yaroslav Askarov if their playoff hopes are going to be realized in the coming season. While that much is clear, it raises the question about just how good he'll need to be without being unrealistic. He's likely not going to come out and compete for the Vezina, so what would be good enough?
The first thing Askarov needs to do is put himself further ahead of Alex Nedeljkovic. While Askarov was technically the starting goaltender last season, the split between him and the backup was fairly even. On top of that, Ryan Warsofsky often trusted Nedeljkovic with some of the bigger games simply because he's more consistent.
On paper, Askarov's .884 save percentage from last season seems very bad considering just a few seasons ago many of the NHL's top goaltenders were often hovering around a .920 save percentage. Outside of Scott Wedgewood last season, that's no longer the case. Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy with a .912 save percentage last season, and there were only 13 goaltenders who appeared in 40 or more games during the 2025-26 campaign that finished above .900.
Askarov finishing 25th in the league in that statistic certainly wasn't ideal, to say the least, but he wasn't far off of an acceptable pace. If he can get into that top half of starting goaltenders and finish with even a .900, it'll make a massive difference for the Sharks.
The goals-against average is more difficult to judge, as that's more often a stat that reflects more on the team as a whole rather than the netminder. Ideally though, getting it closer to 3.00 or below would be ideal for Askarov and doesn't seem unrealistic.
According to MoneyPuck, Askarov finished the 2025-26 season with a -18.9 goals saved above expected which was the third-worst among starting netminders. If he's able to simply reset that number to zero and save exactly what he's expected to save, it'll do wonders for his other statistics and the Sharks as a whole.
Overall, Askarov didn't seem as bad as his numbers showed last season when looking at him with the eye test. There were a lot of breakdowns in front of him and his team didn't help him out in many cases, but there's only so far that excuse can go. This season, he needs to turn himself into at least an average NHL netminder and it's completely doable. If he finishes the season with a .900 save percentage, a 3.00 goals against average, and zero goals saved above expected, it'll be hard to complain about his development.
