When there is an age restriction in a league like the OHL, where players grow too old and become ineligible to return, that can be a tough pill to swallow for organizations. And when that player is your starting goaltender, well, that makes matters even worse.

That’s the story for the Saginaw Spirit heading into the 2025-26 season.

Saginaw’s starter, Andrew Oke, recently wrapped up his fourth and final season in the OHL. After helping seal the organization’s first Memorial Cup title in 2024, he returned for his OA year, playing 50 games while recording a 26-21-3 record, a 3.80 goals-against-average, and a .876 save percentage. 

Unfortunately, he was injured late in the year – last game played on Feb. 27, 2025 – and was unavailable for Saginaw’s playoff run. 2006-born Kaleb Papineau took the reins in the crease during Oke’s absence, but struggled mightily against the Erie Otters in the first round of the playoffs. The Spirit lost in five to Erie, and Oke’s time in the OHL officially ended there. 

With Oke leaving to play for Lake Superior State University in the NCAA next season and Papineau having only one season (23 games) under his belt, the organization realizes it has a massive hole to fill between the pipes.

Therefore, the Spirit used their 96th overall selection in the second round of the 2025 CHL Import Draft on 2007-born Russian netminder Stepan Shurygin. 

Shurygin, turning 18 in August, played in the MHL for MHK Molot Perm last season. He was the team’s starter, playing 44 games, while recording a 15-13-11 record, three shutouts, a 2.74 goals-against-average, and a .904 save percentage. He played the fourth-most games amongst goaltenders in the MHL last season. 

Last Friday, Saginaw announced that they have signed Shurygin to a Standard Player Agreement and will wear number 63 next season for the Spirit. 

According to the MHL’s official website, Shurygin stands at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds. He recently went through his first year of NHL draft eligibility but wasn’t picked. More eyes will be on him in Saginaw next season than there would’ve been last year. 

Considering Papineau’s struggles in his first OHL campaign and Shurygin already having one full year of being a starter in Russia, there’s a very strong possibility that he can come in and steal the starting role. 

The last time Saginaw drafted a Russian goaltender in the import draft was Ivan Prosvetov. He came over and was a rockstar in net for them. He was voted onto the league’s third-team all-star lineup after posting 36 wins in 53 regular season games. 

The Spirit have had a ton of recent success from the CHL Import Draft. Impact players such as Matyas Sapovaliv, Pavel Mintyukov, and Igor Chernyshov all came from the import draft. Will Shurygin become another success story for Saginaw?

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