The NCAA league playoffs are done, and only the Frozen Four remains for prospects in that league. Now that most programs have finished for the season, word is starting to emerge of players looking for greener pastures for next season. One of those is reportedly Flames prospect Arseni Sergeev, who will be moving to Penn State after spending the last two years at the University of Connecticut.
Who is Arseni Sergeev
Drafted in the seventh round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, the Russian netminder played in the NAHL before jumping over to the USHL’s Tri-City Storm. In his season with the Storm, he finished with a 0.918 save percentage in 41 games and was the Goalie of the Year in the league that year.
He then jumped over to the NCAA, as most USHL prospects do, and joined UConn. His first season he played in a tight crease with four netminders, but outplayed all of them to play the most games of any goalie for the program that year. Sergeev finished with a 0.912 save percentage in 19 games, which was among the best for rookie goalies that year.
His goalie partner that season, Logan Terness, then left UConn, and was replaced by Nashville Predators prospect Ethan Haider, who came over from Clarkson University. Expected to be the backup to Sergeev, the two shared the net with Haider finishing with 21 starts to Sergeev’s 16. Despite having better numbers all season long, Sergeev just couldn’t earn the starts that he needed as part of his development and was stuck behind the older Preds prospect all season long.
What’s next for Sergeev?
It makes a lot of sense that Sergeev made this move. The Flames’ prospect needs to get games in this coming season as he enters the back half of his NCAA career. Aside from Dustin Wolf, the Flames only have one other goalie in the system, which leaves the door open for Sergeev should he continue to develop. The only way for him to do so is to play more games.
Penn State plays in the NCAA’s Big-10, and finished the season with a not-great 15-18-3 record on the season. They did not have a single player finish above a point-per-game this season, and only one of their goalies finished with above a 0.900 save percentage. That goalie, Liam Souliere, has also entered the transfer portal, and will be looking for a new home next season.
This should be a great opportunity for Sergeev to play heavy minutes, plus he will get a chance to face off against some of the best players in the country, with Michigan and Minnesota both in the same conference.
While not the best program, this move should give him a great chance to develop as a prospect and hopefully become an AHLer in a couple seasons. Goalie development is hard to predict at the best of times, but if the Flames can get a reliable professional netminder out of him, it’s an enormous win.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a new chapter for the Flames prospect.
Photo Credits: University of Connecticut Men’s Hockey.
