We have all heard the arguments that the Devils should trade their top pick this year. If the Devils are in a win-now position, why would they want to take their picks and wait years for them to develop? But there is an alternative to trading away every draft pick worth anything in a deal: the Devils can look to overage prospects.
Egor Barabanov is one, and should end up the most notable overage prospect from the 2026 NHL Draft. Here’s his production history from Elite Prospects:
Per Byron Bader’s
NHLe model on HockeyProspecting, Barabanov’s rise in production after his draft year has not translated to NHL success very often, but had a near one-to-one NHLe comparison in Patrik Elias through their respective D+2 seasons. However, I do have a somewhat hard time dismissing the trouble Barabanov had in Sioux Falls. After being excellent in New Jersey high school play, Barabanov had an absolute dud of a season with the Stampede before turning it around with the Madison Capitols. Was it a poor team fit? Or was Barabanov not ready for the USHL?
Going to Saginaw and putting up the season he did this year is a massive turnaround for him, and it should get him drafted. The big question here is: who was responsible for so much of the heavy lifting on offense? Barabanov was second in scoring on the team to Nikita Klepov, whose 37 goals and 60 assists have him as one of the top scoring late-first round prospects. Klepov, ironically, had a decent but not stellar season in the USHL with Sioux City in 2024-25. Or might it have been captain Dima Zhilkin, whose 75 points this season sets him up as a potential top 10 draft pick in the 2027 NHL Draft if he continues to grow as an all-around player?
Before we get into that, let’s look at just where Barabanov has been ranked.
Where is Barabanov Ranked?
Since Barabanov is an overage prospect, few rankings include him. Rankings may be sourced outside of Elite Prospects where linked:
- 43rd by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
- 45th by TSN (Button)
- 52nd by The Athletic (Wheeler)
- 70th by Daily Faceoff
Since not many writers have taken notice of Barabanov, there is not much out there to take from scouting report-wise. In the linked ranking by Scott Wheeler, Wheeler notes that Barabanov was voted the second-smartest player in the Western Conference of the OHL and was voted the top playmaker in the OHL by league coaches. Wheeler writes, “His game is primarily about his good skill, his offensive know-how (in terms of spacing, timing, reads, anticipation), and his ability to break down coverage.”
Some Video
Importantly, Barabanov is the center between the very talented Klepov and Zhilkin. In what video we have available on Barabanov, we should be looking for whether he ever drives the play, or if he relies on the skilled wingers on his line. Unfortuantely, Prospect Shifts does not have a video available on Barabanov, so we will be relying on HSD Prospect’s highlight package.
Highlights are not my favorite way to learn about prospects by any stretch of the imagination, but one thing that becomes very clear about Barabanov off the jump is he is very unselfish while possessing great vision, anticipation, and passing skill. He can put the puck in the net, though, and he’s not just a stand-up shooter. He can perform toe-drags and delays pretty easily, and he finds the top corners with regularity but can also shoot under the goalie’s arms.
It is easier to dissect skating in a full shift video, but you can see Barabanov hit the important points in this video. He has an extra gear in his straight-line speed for rush plays, he can stop hard and change direction below the goal line, and he does not waste a lot of energy when getting into position during in-zone plays. More often than not, he relies on being in the right spot to make the right plays, but he can skate when he needs to.
Something I think will also serve Barabanov well moving forward is he likes to make plays in tight spaces. He’ll gladly draw two defenders to him and flip a perfect pass to a teammate for a goal. He also goes to the net willingly, though he seems to largely be employed in the bumper position in the power play and gets less of a chance to show that willingness off outside of five-on-five plays.
When we profile Klepov in the future, I will definitely have an eye also looking to Barabanov at times.
My Thoughts
The mystery of how this ultra-dynamic OHL line of Nikita Klepov, Egor Barabanov, and Dima Zhilkin divvied their responsibilities up has begun to take shape, and it reflects well on Barabanov. Barabanov is a true distributor, taking a lot of responsibility for transition plays and setting guys up in the offensive zone. Per Mitch Brown’s CHL Tracking Project, Barabanov ranked in the 92nd percentile of transition players.
Dima Zhilkin ranked in the 47th percentile of players in transition, but was a fantastic shooter and defender. In that sense, he’s a true winger. Nikita Klepov was the most well-rounded, with no clear weaknesses in his game. However, he was less responsible for tracked transition exits and entries, ranking in the 68th percentile of skaters in transition. This is a good sign for Barabanov as a prospect, ranking in the 92nd percentile in overall ability to Klepov’s 87th percentile ranking. Per Mitch Brown’s tracking, Barabanov helped Klepov and Zhilkin reach those heights just as much as they helped him, if not more.
This is reflected in the video I saw. There were plenty of plays where Barabanov made ridiculous passes, sometimes in situations where I think most juniors players wouldn’t even be thinking of executing a straight pass above a wrap around the boards or a weak shot towards the net for a rebound. On the other hand, it may be true that Barabanov has a lot to work on defensively, but I was not able to judge that from an offense-focused highlight package. I do get the vibe that Barabanov is not the most outwardly physical player, but I did notice him just completely shrug off attempted checks towards him a few times in his highlights. So, maybe there might be something to get out of him physically, even if that is not the game he plays in juniors.
Barabanov is someone I would want the Devils to keep a keen eye on in the second round. His production profile does not indicate a top-two round player, but he is an overage prospect. His tracking profile indicates that he is more than ready for NCAA hockey, though, and may even be ready for professional hockey before you know it. He only just turned 20 last week, and his 33 NHLe per HockeyProspecting is, say, the same NHLe that Dawson Mercer had in his final year before making the jump to the NHL. Did Barabanov’s rise to that level come a year later? Sure, but Dawson Mercer was a first-round pick, and Barabanov is more of a second-round prospect.
As an offensive center, Barabanov is the type of player who I think can also help turn around the long-term outlook of the New Jersey Devils by providing another source of goal creation on the third line. I would still like to see more from him in a shift-by-shift video, but he checks a lot of boxes to be an interesting prospect to me, and I would be pretty happy if he were a Day Two selection for the Devils, whether he is picked up with their current second-rounder or if the team picks up another pick in a trade. While overage picks are rare, Barabanov seems like a case where whoever selects him may just be picking him up at the perfect time in his development as he rises dramatically.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of Egor Barabanov as a second-round prospect? Theoretically, how high are you willing to pick an overage prospect? Do you think that should matter? What do you think of Barabanov’s prior success with other touted prospects in Zhilkin and Klepov? How would he fit in with the Devils if he made the team by 2027-28? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
