Coming off a strong 2022-23 season that saw Arturs Silovs go on to have tremendous success at the World Championships, the young Latvian goaltender is beginning to position himself as one of the top goaltender prospects in the league.

The best scouting site out there, Elite Prospects recently released an article by Greg Balloch, ranking the top goalie prospects in the NHL and Silovs came in at number 11 on his list.

It’s no surprise that Devon Levi, Dustin Wolf, Jeseper Wallstedt or Yaroslav Askarov are above Silovs on the ranking and it also shows us that the World Championship MVP has not really resonated around the league in a way that it impressed Canucks fans.

Silovs is now 22 years old and will be heading into his third pro season. In 2021-22, Silovs played 10 games in each of the AHL and ECHL before really taking the spotlight last year with a 26-12-5 record in the AHL and a 3-2-0 record in the NHL.

The young goaltender has taken large strides in regard to his consistency over the past 12 months. His 2021-22 season gave us pause on the hype as he was allowing quite a few easy goals against but he has put in the work and is not on the edge of being a top-10 goalie prospect in the NHL.

Silovs is more than likely to play at least a handful of NHL games this season and will challenge for the backup position out of training camp.

It’s still early in Silovs’ career, and he was severely affected by the 2020 COVID season, where he only made one start in North America.

We have high hopes for Silovs and he seems to be a great fit with the Canucks’ goaltending department, led by Ian Clark and Marko Torenius. Our expectation is that Silovs will be back in the AHL next season and will play a ton of games. He should get some NHL games and with no waivers required for the Latvian, there’s a lot of flexibility to get him up to the NHL for a quick start, or even just to continue to get more comfortable in the NHL.

Silovs is in the final year of his entry-level contract and will need a new deal for the 2024-25 season. He also earns 10x as much on his paycheck if he is playing in the NHL compared to what he earns in the AHL — so, there’s a lot of motivation for him to make the NHL as soon as possible.

Do you believe that Silovs is ready to be a backup in the NHL and continue on with his development from the backup role? And do you think Silovs should be higher or lower in Elite Prospects’ rankings?

Let us know in the comments!