Ottawa Senators Goalie Prospect Takes Loss In 14-2 Saturday Blowout At World Juniors

The Ottawa Senators have only one prospect playing this year at the World Junior Hockey Championships, and with the tournament being held in Ottawa, goalie Vladimir Nikitin wanted to put on a good show for the NHL city he hopes to play in one day.

It isn't going well, but he's also not getting much help.

As the starter for Kazakhstan, Nikitin has given up 17 goals in the club's first two games. The Senators' seventh-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft gave up all eight goals in their Friday opener, an 8-1 loss to Sweden. On Saturday, he allowed nine goals in a 14-2 loss to Czechia.

Remarkably, three Czech shooters recorded a hat trick in the Czechia game: Matej Mastalirsky, Vojtech Hradec, and Jakub Stancl. Nikitin was pulled after giving up three goals. But when his replacement, Jokhar Dudarkiyev, gave up five goals of his own, Kazakhstan put Nikitin back in to try and stop the bleeding.

Unfortunately, he gave up six more goals.

While it hasn't been a vintage performance so far, Nikitin can't be fairly judged playing behind team defence that's getting so badly outclassed.

Without Nikitin's past heroics, Kazakhstan wouldn't even have qualified for this tournament. As the club's only NHL Draft pick, he helped Kazakhstan to the World Junior Division 1A title last year that earned them a promotion to this event for the first time since 2020. Nikitin posted a sparkling .944 save percentage and a 1.48 goals-against.

Nikitin played last season for the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL but he's back home this season playing in the KHL.