The Blue Jackets have gotten better goaltending so far this season as Jet Greaves has graduated from the prospect ranks to take over the starting job in Columbus.
But, the future may still be even brighter. With Sergei Ivanov, Evan Gardner, Melvin Strahl and 2025 first round pick Pyotr Andreyanov in the system; goaltending may be a position of strength for the Jackets for many years to come.
Though he's likely the furthest away from making any kind of impact within the system, Andreyanov is undoubtedly the highest ceiling player they have at the position.
Checking in on Pyotr
Though he's signed to remain in Russia through the 2029-30 season, the Jackets thought highly enough of Pyotr Andreyanov to take him with the #20 overall pick.
If you have seen him play, you understand why.
At 6'2" and already over 200 pounds, Pyotr takes up a lot of the net, even in the butterfly position. He's an athletic puck stopper with outstanding lateral movement, as evidenced in the CBJ prospect camp this summer:
The two #CBJ prospects taken in the first round of this year’s #NHL Draft, D Jackson Smith and G Pyotr Andreyanov going one on one at Dev. Camp this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/eEOdBsJY9i
— Dave Maetzold (@DMaetzMedia) July 2, 2025
I get that it's just a training camp shot, but I was very impressed by his calm, cerebral positional play in the net. The best goaltenders are the ones who make the game look boring, and Andreyanov has that trait to his game.
So far this season, he has done nothing to change my opinion that he's quickly becoming one of the top goaltending prospects in all of hockey.
He has split time between the MHL (Russian juniors) and the VHL (Russian minor pro). In 5 games played at the junior level, he's 4-1-0 with a 2.20 goals against average, .936% save percentage and one shutout.
In the VHL, he's gotten into 12 games, owning a 4-7-0 record - but with a sparkling 2.05 GAA and .924% save percentage. He also has one shutout at that level.
Why can't he be closer?
While it would be nice to see the Blue Jackets' return for David Jiricek reward them sooner, it's important to have patience here.
Typically, goaltenders take a little bit longer to develop before they are ready to take on an NHL job full-time. Look no further than Jet Greaves, who has finally made the cut at 24 years old.
Though, to be fair, many of us thought Jet should have been up last year.
Time that out with Andreyanov, and that puts us right about the time his contract is set to expire in Russia. I'm still of the belief that he could come over sooner, but time will tell.
Honestly, I look at his contract as a good thing. It's free development for the organization. They don't have to pay him anything, won't eat up any of his ELC for development, and he will get training and starts in the KHL in the near future. That's one of the most competitive leagues in the world.
It also prevents the Jackets from having their hand forced, thrusting him into the NHL. By the time he comes over, he should be a polished NHL-ready player, not unlike Kirill Marchenko or Dmitri Voronkov.
Those guys have worked out pretty well so far. Hopefully, patience with Andreyanov will pay off for the organization in a bigger way.