Everything fits together for goaltender Arturs Silovs: CanucksArmy Prospect Rankings #3

Arturs Silovs is a Latvian goaltender who was drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in the sixth round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. He is currently playing with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League, where he has posted a 2.85 goals against average and a 0.913 save percentage in 33 games this season. Silovs is a big, athletic goaltender with a quick glove and good puck tracking skills. He is also an active participant in the play and displays good rebound control. He has the potential to be a reliable NHL goalie in the future.

Everything fits together for goaltender Arturs Silovs: CanucksArmy Prospect Rankings #3

Arturs Silovs started the 2022-23 season as a 21-year-old with just 11 AHL games.

Since then, he’s grown into a trusted AHL starter and still has so much room to grow as a goaltender.

Let’s dive into the first prospect among our top 3 – Arturs Silovs.

Arturs Silovs is a 6’3″ goaltender selected in the sixth round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. The Canucks saw plenty of raw potential in the Latvian’s game and his work under the tutelage of Ian Clark is beginning to show in game action on the ice.

Silovs has a 19-9-4 record with the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL this season. He has a savings rate of 0.901% and a goals-against-average of 2.60. Silovs’ 19 wins put him second in the AHL, and two of those wins came via shutouts.

While his savings percentage of 0.901% isn’t incredible to look at, it’s certainly how he arrives at that number. Silovs is an acrobatic goalkeeper who exudes athleticism and proves his flexibility every night.

There have been massive advances in Silov’s game as he covers the net. His stance is firmer and the movement in the crease with his short jabs makes him look like a much more technically sound keeper than when we first saw him at the Canucks training camp in Victoria in the 2019-20 season.

As we see with many Ian Clark goalies, Silovs is aggressive when challenging shooters and makes himself as big as possible when pivoting out of the crease to take away angles.

Size isn’t teachable, and when Silovs combines it with his sheer athleticism, he’s the perfect candidate to potentially take over as the Canucks’ starter one day. He even drew some attention for his strong preseason play.

We see some parts of his game that need improvement but the good news is he’s still only 21 years old. I’m far from a goalie expert, but I’ll try to share my insights from almost all of his starts in the AHL.

First off, it seems like Silovs gets slapped under the arms a little too often. He kinda reminds me of the early parts of Jacob Markstrom’s Canucks career – where Markstrom looked so big but pucks just slipped through him early in the games. A decent number of the goals Silovs gives up are clean shots that he gets away with and while they’re not good for him in these games we actually see it as a positive because Silovs shares a lot of similarities with Markstrom. When Markstrom was able to tighten his game a bit, he became a top-notch goaltender.

The hope is that Silovs can work on his weaknesses while also improving the already impressive parts of his game. If he can do all that and keep learning from one of the best goalkeeping coaches in the world, we might have a potential starter in Silovs.

Due to Thatcher Demko’s injury, which resulted in Collin Delia’s call-up, Silovs was called up to the AHL regular that season. He ran with the opportunity and showed he can handle the workload. From our preseason perspective, we wanted to see Silovs vying for a chance to be Abbotsford’s starter for the AHL playoffs. We’re at a point now where Silovs has gained the coach’s trust and he should get a chance to be a goalie who gets about 40 starts this season and maybe 45-55 next season.

If this development path continues, we can see Silovs coming to the NHL for the 2024-25 season as a hot 23-year-old goaltender with plenty of AHL experience and the confidence to prove himself at the NHL level. There’s no rush for goalies, but we may see Silovs late next season in a similar vein to Thatcher Demko breaking into the NHL as a 23-year-old in January 2019. For the record: Silovs would be 22 if he came up with an NHL spot next January.

Anyway, Silovs is rolling in the AHL this season and continues to work on his weaknesses while gaining experience in the closest league to the NHL. It’s been a great year for Silovs, and that’s why he’s moved up from #10 (post-draft ranking) to #3 in our ranking.

This concludes our third-place prospect report. We’ll be back tomorrow when we look at who finishes second in our leaderboard.