The entire saga between the Philadelphia Flyers and their Belarusian goaltending prospect Alexei Kolosov could be coming to a close, if the team wants it to happen, according to a new report on Monday morning.
Elliotte Friedman explained some of what is going on behind closed doors when it comes to the no-show netminder on Monday morning’s edition of 32 Thoughts, and how some other NHL teams could be sniffing around to try and acquire Kolosov from the Flyers.
“What I’ve heard there is that teams have called and gone ‘What’s going on?’ and I’ve heard that Philly has said that ‘We’re not committed to trading him, but right now, we’re thinking second-rounder’,” said Friedman.
He went further to say that it would have to, of course, make sense for the team and almost get a guarantee from the player that he would show up — because that has been the problem all along through the last several months of dramatics.
In the quickest way possible, in case anyone needs a refresher on this whole entire situation: Kolosov signed his entry-level contract with the Flyers last summer and then came over to the AHL for a couple games at the end of last season. But, after all games were played, he didn’t show up to development camp in July and loose reports came out that he had a miserable time in North America and wants out of his contract and to stay in the KHL. Then, the Flyers still felt confident that he would come over in the end, since he is contractually obligated to, but he has been not at any rookie camp and might not show up to Flyers training camp next week, either.
It’s a mess.
So, rightfully, teams are asking the Flyers to see if there is a possible trade that could be had. Since, Kolosov is a 22-year-old starting goaltending overseas and put up decent numbers for his age, and is considered a decent prospect who could become something in the NHL one day.
If a team does get confirmation that Kolosov just hated playing in Allentown and wants nothing to do with the Flyers, but instead wants to live it up in Los Angeles or something; and the Flyers get a second-round pick (Kolosov was a third-round pick, to be fair) then everyone might just end up being happy. Well, not the Flyers for getting run around by a player who isn’t even one of the best prospects in his country in his position, but at least there might be some conclusion to this annoying story.
With Flyers training camp starting this week and preseason beginning this upcoming weekend, maybe this is something that will happen sooner rather than later.
