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: Egor Shilov
Age: 18
Position: C
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 176
Likely 2026-27 Team: Victoriaville Tigres (QMJHL)
2025 Rank: N/A
Final Rank: #12
High Rank: #3 (Jackie)
Low Rank: #34 (Matthew)
2025-26 Statistics:
Victoriaville Tigres: 63 GP, 32 G, 50 A, 82 TP
Egor Shilov
was drafted by the Colorado Avalanche at 43rd overall in the second round of the 2026 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old center spent most of his youth playing career in Russia before he eventually ventured to the US for the 2024-25 season to play for the Long Island Gulls 16U AAA team and Green Bay Gamblers in the USHL. Since then, Shilov has played for the Victoriaville Tigers in the QMJHL after getting selected third overall in the 2025 CHL import draft. This is the team he’s expected to play for in 2026-27. Beyond that, Shilov has also committed to play for the Penn State University Nittany Lions in 2027-28, though several reports state he could make the jump to college this coming season.
Shilov has established himself as an exceptional playmaker and goal-scorer so far in his playing career as evidenced by his 82 points and 32 goals in 63 games in Victoriaville. He has phenomenal hockey sense, meaning that his ability to read the game and different plays in different situations is very high. Because his hockey sense is very high, he’s able not only to put himself in many favorable scoring situations but to put his teammates in favorable ones as well. On top of that, he also has very strong puck control skills, which allow him to be more shifty and creative when creating plays. Shilov is also great on the power play as well, which does not come as a shock given how strong and creative he is as a playmaker. His weaknesses are a lack of pace and physicality, which hopefully he can improve upon when he transitions to the NCAA.
Obviously, given how young he is, Shilov is very likely a few years off from being able to help the Avalanche and/or Eagles, which is reason for varied opinions in our rankings. However, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about this prospect as he is highly skilled and is an unusual high ceiling prospect for the organization as he continues to play in the QMJHL this upcoming season, and eventually plays in the NCAA.
2026 Top 25 Under 25
#25 Nikita Novosyolov
#24 Axel Eloffson
#23 Teddy Lechner
#22 Ivan Yunin
#21 Luka Cloutier
#20 Matthew DiMarsico
#19 Shawn Carrier
#18 Domenick Fensore
#17 Tory Pitner
#16 Jake Fisher
#15 Beckett Hamilton
#14 Linus Funck
#13 Alex Gagne
