UConn men’s hockey lands 2022 goaltender Arsenii Sergeev

UConn men’s hockey is continuing to stockpile talent at goaltender by going back to a familiar pipeline. On Tuesday, the Huskies landed a commitment from Arsenii Sergeev, an ‘02 net minder out of Yaroslavl, Russia, a source told The UConn Blog.

Listed at 6-foot-3, 192 pounds, Sergeev plays for the NAHL’s Shreveport Mudbugs and owned a 2.17 goals against average and .936 save percentage in 20 games last season. He has “super high-end” athleticism and while he’s not at the level of Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergeev is comparable in size and plays a similar style, the source said.

Sergeev is eligible for the 2021 NHL Draft, where he’s ranked as the No. 8 North American goaltender in the NHL Central Scouting Rankings. He’ll come to Storrs in the class of 2022 and will join a group of net minders that already includes current freshman Logan Terness, one of the top prospects out of Canada.

After Tomas Vomacka played every possible second in goal when he was healthy over the last two seasons, UConn wants more competition between the pipes going forward. This year, Union transfer Darion Hanson is expected to start but will have to earn his spot over Terness. Starting next season, Terness and Sergeev will battle it out for playing time.

Sergeev is also the latest player to come out of UConn’s Russian pipeline, which also includes Vladislav Firstov, Artem Shlaine (born in Russia, moved to the US in high school), Yan Kuznetsov, Ruslan Iskhakov and Max Letunov. Both Sergeev and Firstov hail from Yaroslavl.

Sergeev is the second player in UConn’s class of 2022, joining forward Nate Hanley.