Player's Profile
Picture Courtesy of www.RussianProspects.com
- Name: Semyon Varlamov
- Position: G
- Catches: Left
- Height: 6-1
- Weight: 201 lbs
- Birthdate: 1988-04-27
- Eligible for Draft: 2006
- Drafted:
- Hometown: Saratov, Russia
- Acquired: 1st round (23rd overall), 2006
- Playing In: Pro
Semyon Varlamov
Prospect Grade: 8.5 B (About Prospect Grades)
Profile Contributed By: HF Staff
History
Semyon Varlamov grew up and initially learned hockey in Samara, Russia hockey school. The young netminder moved to Yaroslavl in his early teens and quickly established himself as the club’s dominant 88 born goalie.
2004-05: Varlamov made his debut on Lokomotiv’s junior farm club, Lokomotiv 2, skating for the first time in the 1st League (Russia 3). Throughout that season he was second, backing up 87 born Ivan Kasutin. During the summer of 2005, Kasutin was loaned to Penza, opening the starting job for Varlamov.
2005-06: The young goaltender has not looked back, starting most of the games for Lokomotiv 2 during the 2005-06 season. Internationally, Varlamov is a long time member of the Russian 88 born national team. He also was a back up for the 87 born Russian squad at the unfortunately not terribly successful 2005 U18 World Junior Championships.
Continuing to play with an older age group, Varlamov beat out his former teammate Ivan Kasutin for back up duties at the 2006 U20 World Junior Championships for a Russian squad that mostly consisted of 86 born players. Varlamov did not see much ice time, skating only in the contest against Latvia, where he did not particularly stand out despite allowing just a single goal.
2006-07: At the 2007 WJC, Varlamov was the second best goalie in the entire tournament, giving up only nine goals on 136 shots, with a 1.51 goals against average. Because of his outstanding play, he was selected one of the tournament's three best players for his team. In the Russian Super League this year for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv, he had a 15-7-6 record and a 2.12 GAA
2007-08: Varlamov continued his campaign with Yaroslavl in the Russian Super League, playing in 44 games as the top goaltender for the club. He blanked the opposition three times on the season and posted a 2.45 GAA. He helped lead Yaroslavl to the championship round of the playoffs, where he posted five shutouts in 16 postseason games. He had a 1.62 GAA in the post season, which more than likely helped his cause, as he was selected to Russia’s 2008 World Championship team. Unfortunately, he suffered an injury just before the tournament and didn’t see any action at the world level.
Talent Analysis
He has a fairly unique style – not a pure butterfly nor a pure stand up goalie…he changes his style depending on the situation, though he more often prefers the butterfly style, as he possesses a high speed of movement and stands up into the stance quickly…possesses a quick glove hand, which is one of his strengths…not active enough with his stick and rarely leaves the net to play the puck, but he does neutralize one timers through the crease effectively…he plays well positionally, not losing the net, but he doesn’t skate out of the net far enough to challenge the shot…technically very sound…stable mentally for a goalie of his age…controls the rebounds well, not leaving anything in front of him…Russia’s relatively poor hockey goaltending school is the only concern regarding his future development.
The young goalie is likely one of the better goaltending prospects to come out of Russia since Anaheim’s Ilya Bryzgalov. Varlamov has the size, raw skill and reflexes to make him into a strong NHL goalie. What he lacks is maturity, mobility and stick handling, all of which can be acquired through experience and training.
Future
Will challenge for the No. 1 spot with the Caps in 2009-10.
Stats
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Profile Last Updated: August, 5th 2009
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