The Philadelphia Flyers today (April 2) announced they have re-assigned Belarusian goaltender Alexei Kolosov from the KHL club Dinamo Minsk to the American Hockey League’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Kolosov, drafted in the third round of the 2021 NHL Draft, arrived in the U.S. late Sunday evening, as reported by Anthony Di Marco. Dinamo Minsk announced on March 26 Kolosov was leaving the KHL team to begin his career in the Flyers organization. It’s unclear when Kolosov will begin playing with Lehigh Valley, who has nine games remaining on its schedule including home games this weekend against the Providence Bruins and the Cleveland Monsters.
The goalie went 22-21-3 with a .907 save percentage and career highs in appearances, wins, minutes played, saves and shutouts. It’s believed Kolosov will play in some games alongside Felix Sandstrom, who the Flyers reassigned on March 29. Sandstrom was reassigned after news broke the Flyers managed to get Ivan Fedotov to begin his NHL career after being released from his KHL contract with CKSA Moscow a year earlier than expected.
The goaltending situation from the Flyers, particularly the backup options for Sam Ersson, improved greatly in the last week to 10 days. Ersson’s workload resulted in backups Cal Petersen and Sandstrom appearing sparsely since early February. And when they did play it often put the Flyers at a noticeable disadvantage with some poor goaltending efforts.
Now the Flyers look to have a capable complement to Ersson with Fedotov who made a great first impression Monday night against the Islanders, essentially stealing a point from New York who dominated the second period. He’ll also more than likely start one of the two back-to-back games this weekend against Buffalo and Columbus. Although currently an unrestricted free agent, Fedotov is expected to sign an extension with the Flyers.
With the Flyers’ goaltending situation more stabilized, Kolosov will most likely develop and get lots of playing time in the AHL until he’s ready for the NHL.
