The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by Mile High Hockey staff members. Seven writers have ranked players under the age of 25 in the Colorado Avalanche organization as of September 1, 2026. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.
Name: Nikita Novosyolov
Age: 22
Position: Goaltender
Height:
6’2”Weight: 172 lbs
Likely 2026-27 Team: New Mexico Goatheads (ECHL)
2025 Rank: N/A
Final Rank: #25
High Rank: #18 (Jackie)
Low Rank: #30 (Matthew)
2025-26 Statistics:
Gornyak (VHL) – 40 GP: 22-10-8, .932 SV%,
2.10 GAA
Avtomobilist (KHL) – 3 GP: 1-2-0, .870 SV%, 5.33 GAA
One of the newest Colorado Avalanche prospects is a recent contract signing which flew under the radar. It was when 22-year-old goaltender Nikita Novosyolov inked a two-year Entry Level Contract with the organization on June 1st of this year. As a relatively unknown undrafted player, the organization pounced and got him to agree to a deal and come to North America after a successful couple of years in the VHL with Gornyak in the Avtomobilist (KHL) system. This is also fellow Avalanche prospect defenseman Nikita Ishimnikov’s organization in Russia and therefore Novosyolov must have caught the eye of Colorado’s scouts keeping tabs on the team.
As he took over the starting job with Gornyak, Novosyolov improved his stats from a 2.24 goals against average to a 2.10 and kept a steady excellent save percentage from .934 to a .932 the following year with an increased work load. Gornyak was a playoff team which only won one round but the young goaltender still put up a .924 save percentage and 2.76 goals against average with a 4-7-0 record in the postseason.
A similar move was made by the Avalanche a year ago which brought goaltender Isak Posch to the organization as depth in net. He was recently moved to Nashville in the Ross Colton trade but Posch was named an AHL All-Star and played far more in that league than was expected when he signed. A similar scenario sets up for the Russian netminder, as if everyone is healthy, Novosyolov is likely in net with the organization’s new ECHL affiliate New Mexico. But don’t be surprised if he has a stint in Loveland even with a very formidable duo of Trent Miner and Ilya Nabokov as the expected tandem for the Colorado Eagles.
The varied ranking on our list speaks to knowing very little of this player. His VHL stats over the last two years are encouraging and despite a couple rough outings in the KHL it seems like the right time for Novosyolov to give it a go in North America on a NHL contract. What’s helped his cause as well is that he was in attendance at development camp and looked pretty good among the rest of Colorado’s drafted goalie prospects, which has piqued everyone’s curiosity in order to rank him in our top 25.
