Anton Silayev is one of the most unique shutdown defenseman we have ever scouted. We have never evaluated a 17 year old defenseman that has played extended minutes in a full-time, top-4 role at the KHL level before, and we have never seen a defenseman assert his game in his first year of eligibility at the KHL level like Silayev did this past season. His best performances were in the first third of the season and admittedly he underwhelmed a bit in the MHL playoffs, but when taken as a whole, he still had an incredibly successful season, while putting up 11 points in 63 games at the KHL level.
We think there’s some similarities and differences between another shutdown defenseman that accelerated at the pro level in his initial draft seasons, and that’s Moritz Seider. Like Silayev, Seider asserted his game early, had a fantastic tool- kit, showed a heady, smart, mature game; he backed down to no one, never looked intimidated and rarely was overwhelmed. The differences though lie specifically in the development curve offensively and as a result the offensive projection when determining Silayev drops below Seider’s.
The single biggest difference offensively between Seider and Silayev is the finesse and overall puck skills between the two players and the offensive curve that Seider displayed by the end of his draft season, relative to Silayev’s. Seider showed deft handling at the International level both against Junior players and at the end of the season at the World Championships, especially through the end phase of his passing plays.
Silayev is more rigid mechanically when transferring through his passing and his ability to rock back pucks and his ability to control pucks never hit a higher level from the start of the season, right through to the end of the season. That said, Silayev is significantly larger than Seider and that can result in a delay within his coordination. The rule of thumb is that the larger the player, the more time you need to allow that prospect time to develop his coordination, and in Silayev’s case, it’s possible and maybe you could even say likely, that his hands and puck control skill-set will continue to develop well past this season as he continues to mature into a young adult.
We don’t want to give you the wrong idea though. Silayev is capable of handling the puck at his top speed at an okay rate already. He can effortlessly one touch a pass to his teammate that directly lands on the tape, and both his exit and retrieval rates within his playmaking skill-set already project to hold at an adequate level. Like Seider, he also thinks the game at a high level and can identify options under pressure and find weakside options in transition or back door options in the offensive end. He even got extended powerplay time at the KHL level in spurts this season, and showed a decent puck moving skill set that was predicated around his ability to pivot and find no-look lateral options.
Although Silayev’s offensive potential is the talking point, it’s never going to be the hallmark of his game. This player's bread and butter is his ability to force unrelenting pressure on opposing forwards when they cross the defensive-zone. His skating base for his size is both athletic and explosive, so when you combine it with his range, it means that players have to react very quickly to his defense. He’s both a reactionary defender himself who can also anticipate swing passes below his goal-line at a high rate, but he’s also a defenseman who forces opponents into errors. We wish he was more anticipatory than he is, but if you are going to be reactionary, bring a tool-kit to the table to work with, and he just happens to have one of the best in this class, or any class for that matter.
A lot of younger defenseman who are first year eligible have difficulty maintaining adequate posture when attempting to take away specific passing lanes while also simultaneously trying to stay in-front of their man, but Silayev is adept at keeping a lower center of gravity despite his enormous build, which is a testament to his skating base. There’s depth within his skating and it allows him to make stick positional and body adjustments rapidly.
He’s very aware as the result of keeping his head on a swivel, which allows him to monitor back door options and gives him the ability to recognize where he is positioned relative to his defense so that he can set up switches with them when needed. His awareness by using his head tracking extends to all three zones, which gives him the ability to assess his time and space but also track pucks through potential passing lanes.
Anton’s a multifaceted defenseman, who doesn’t just rely on wing-span and positioning. He’s not physically developed and lacks pro strength but he understands how to leverage his frame to his advantage, even at this stage in his development. He knows how to properly board pin, and he knows how to use his frame to weigh heavy so that he forces opposing players to work out of corners, exhausting them in the process. We wish he would run through players more than he currently does but we think it will come in time once he physically matures. We also wish he was as ruthless as Stian Solberg or Lian Bichsel, but he makes up for his lack of a mean streak by still being hard to play against. He makes life difficult and that’s what matters most.
He’s also advanced at recognizing which lane an opposing skater is attempting to take when cutting away from the boards, and doesn’t fall for deception easily. We’ve discussed this in other write ups but we will state it again. Defensemen that can force higher work rates on their opponents are very valuable in playoff series, since fatigue occurs at a higher rate due to the pace of play getting ramped up. Just through his innate play, he can force teams into making mistakes that he can then capitalize on due to their increased level of fatigue.
At the offensive line and into the neutral-zone, he’s quick to anticipate the opposing teams transitional breakout routes, which allows him to take advantage of his rapid pivoting and turning ability, which then allows him to C-cut and close down his gap on proper angles, so that he can control the geography of the rink. We talk extensively about defenseman mitigating or reducing risk in a lot of our evaluations, and Silayev can do exactly that.
When projecting a player with tremendous shutdown capabilities, there’s a process we undertake. These defensive attribute breakdowns hopefully show the reasoning behind why we value him. Silayev is going to be drafted based on the concept that he can eat minutes and swallow the ice surface faster than almost any other prospect we’ve seen. He’s that extremely rare combination of a prospect who possesses elite recovery rates while having the transitional defense projected to be able to shutdown the likes of the Connor McDavids and the Nathan MacKinnon’s of the hockey world. He projects to insulate a pairing better than any other prospect in this class, and that’s why he’s ranked as aggressively in our rankings as he is. The offensive touch that may or may not come is just an added bonus.
“Have you seen the big Russian yet? Holy Sh** what a player!” - NHL Scout, October 2023
“He will be one of the best shut down guys in the league in five years.” - NHL Scout, November 2023
“Ranking the D has been difficult.” - NHL Scout, December 2023
“He’s played the right side a lot.” - NHL Scout, January 2024
“He’s a unicorn along with a few players in this draft.” - NHL Scout, January 2024
“The way he skates and covers ice is like nothing I’ve seen.” - NHL Scout, January 2024
“I saw a media guy say he’s great on the powerplay but needs to fix his defensive game. I don’t think these guys watch anything.” - NHL Scout, March 2024
“All you need to do is watch the NHL playoffs and that will answer why a team drafted him so high.” - NHL Scout, May 2024
“He set the U18 scoring record in Russia so he’s doing something right.” - NHL Scout, May 2024
“If he had very good puck skills and above average upside offensively he would be an easy 2nd overall on my list and would challenge Celebrini for 1st overall” - HP Scout Jérôme Bérubé, March 2024
“NHL Playoffs are such a good reminder of what matters in scouting, I had dropped him a bit on my list then I watched the NHL playoffs and asked myself why would I do that.... he’s built for playoff hockey and he could be a game changer in the playoffs.” - HP Scout Jérôme Bérube May 2024
“I think there’s another level to him offensively then we’ve seen from him this season. He was mishandling the puck more and making less dangerous offensive plays down the stretch, which speaks to fatigue for me and that makes a lot of sense when you factor in the sheer amount of games he played.” - HP Scout, Brad Allen
“If you think our ranking of this player is too aggressive, please watch some playoff hockey and get back to us. These players are invaluable and they don’t come around every-draft.” - HP Scout, Brad Allen
“If you have been following us for a while than you know that we value Dmen that can shut down the opponents best players. We saw it in Schneider and Seider to name a couple. Add Silayev to that group. He’s a unicorn. Really really tight between him and Buium for me. I was leaning Silayev for a while but PP guys are so tough to find...I go back and forth.” - HP Scout, Mark Edwards, March 2024
