Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?

Silayev is a unicorn 6-foot-7 defenseman who surprised some people with a hot start offensively in the KHL in his draft year and rose to the top of the class playing legitimate minutes for one of the KHL’s better teams for most of the year (including in the playoffs) — an extremely rare feat for a 17-year-old. His 11 points in 63 games broke the league’s under-18 scoring record (Vladimir Tarasenko had 10 points and Kirill Kaprizov and Evgeny Kuznetsov each had eight at the same age). He played on the power play, consistently registered multiple shots per game and even played both sides. Last season didn’t keep climbing along that meteoric trajectory at the same pace, and I’m not sure there’s as much offense as we saw early on in his draft year for a stretch (largely due to average smarts), but Silayev remains an exciting and unique prospect with a high defensive ceiling.

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