Kings select goaltender Yegor Rybkin (Round 3, Pick 89)

The LA Kings have selected goaltender Yegor Rybkin with the 89th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.

Name: Yegor Rybkin
Position: Goaltender
Shoots: Right
DOB: December 3, 2007
Height: 6-7
Weight: 207
Hometown: Yegoryevsk, RUS
NHL Central Scouting Final Ranking: 2 (European Goaltenders)
The Hockey News / Ryan Kennedy Final Ranking: 81
HPR/Malloy Final Ranking: 68
Daily Faceoff / Steven Ellis Final Ranking: 109

Stats (Chaika Nizhny Novgorod, MHL): 11 GP, 2.56 GAA, .915 SV%, 5-2-0 Record

Expert Opinions
Jukka-Pekka Vuorinen / NHL Director of European Scouting
He is a massive, right catching goalie. He is a technically structured goalie and plays a calm, positional, blocking style game. He used his size well to seal the lower net and force shooters wide. His size and statistical profile suggest a positional, economy of movement style goalie, and we believe all these elements attract NHL teams.

Steven Ellis / Daily Faceoff
If you’re a fan of large goaltenders – and most NHL teams are – then Rybkin is for you. At 6-foot-7, he’s absolutely massive. For all the talk about small goalies in the NHL, there are just two – Toronto’s Dennis Hildeby and Ottawa’s Mads Sogaard – who have played at least one NHL game this year standing 6-foot-7 or taller. Fortunately for Rybkin, he’s having a good season in the MHL, even if games have been hard to come by. Rybkin is as athletic as you’ll find out of a huge goaltender, and he does an excellent job of sealing the posts and handling shots down low. But he can get caught falling for fake moves way too often, and he tends to overcommit to shots more than a goalie his size should. Regardless, a team is going to take him – and they’ll need him to start playing much, much more if he’s going to flourish.

Quick Take – This could be one of the most interesting stories in the entire draft for a number of reasons. For starters he stands at 6-foot-7 and catches with his right hand. Rybkin has not suited up in a single game since November 21st however since being sidelined with an injury. However, he was training with his KHL team as a black ace for their playoff run, a good sign that he will be ready to play next season. Given his size it is evident that he is dominant down low as he uses his frame to cover the entire bottom of the crease. Rybkin will be an interesting piece to keep an eye on as he joins an organization with a strong goaltender pool already.