Senators Prospect of the Week – Vladimir Nikitin

Nikitin’s only consistent stretch came in at the 2025 World Junior Championship, when he started five out of six games for the Kazakhs while posting a .836 SV%. That was enough to catch a bit of attention from North America. Although Kazakhstan was relegated, the Chiefs, who still owned his BCHL rights, traded him to the Nanaimo Clippers on Jan 6, four days after the defeat. Laster that month, he made his return to the league official, stopping 23 of 25 shots for his first victory for the Clippers.

That first win set the tone for the rest of the season for Nikitin. It took nearly a month for him to see his first loss, a close 3-2 loss to the Trail Smoke Eaters. Although he was still serving as a backup, he was playing at least one to two games a week, and each game, he got a little bit better. That brings us to last week, where he made back-to-back starts and was nearly unbeatable. Against the Surrey Eagles, he allowed three goals on 30 shots, then shut the door on the Coquitlam Express, turning away all 37 shots for his second shutout of the season.

Nikitin now has an 8-2-0 record with a .918 SV% – much better than his rookie season. He’s also taken home four First Star of the Games this season. In the past, he’s performed better when facing more shots, and that remains the same this season, but he’s been far more consistent with the Clippers. He’s averaged 31 shots per game since his debut on Jan. 25, but only had four games with a sub-.900 SV%. He still has a long way to go in his development, but the Senators could certainly use another big, consistent goalie in their organization.

Updates on Frozen Four, Belleville Senators Prospects

The Senators will have a few prospects competing in the NCAA’s Frozen Four starting on March 27. Cornell’s Hoyt Stanley, Ohio State’s Theo Wallberg, and University of Massachusetts’ Nicholas Van Tassell and Cam O’Neill will all try to advance to the second round on Thursday. Wallberg has the best chance, as Ohio State is the highest-ranked of those schools and will face Boston University, which hasn’t been as dominant this season as in the past. Cornell faces the top-ranked Michigan State, which doesn’t bode well for Stanley, while UMass has to get by fifth-place University of Minnesota. Owen Beckner had a great freshman season with Colorado College, but will miss out on the tournament after finishing sixth in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference. The University of Wisconsin’s Tyson Dyck and Reidler are also done for the season.

After putting up eight points two weeks ago, Jan Jenik had a much quieter follow-up, scoring just a single goal in three games last week. He remains one of the American Hockey League Belleville Senators’ most skilled players, but apart from that one blip, he’s been pretty subdued this season. Injuries haven’t helped, nor have the odd NHL call-ups, but for those hoping he’d emerge as a top offensive threat, it looks like they’ll have to wait a bit longer.

Speaking of top offensive players, though, Angus Crookshank set the Belleville franchise record for most-career goals with his tally on March 21. He now has 77 goals with Belleville, surpassing Egor Sokolov’s total he set in 2023-24 while needing 42 fewer games to get there. It’s hard to believe that one of Belleville’s best players has only played one NHL game this season.

Tune in next week to see which prospect stood above the rest.