The Philadelphia Flyers have called up goaltender Aleksei Kolosov from Lehigh Valley today while also announcing that center Christian Dvorak and goaltender Dan Vladar won’t be dressed for this afternoon’s game against the host New York Rangers.
Transaction: We have recalled goaltender Aleksei Kolosov from the @LVPhantoms (AHL) under emergency conditions.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 20, 2025
Additionally, goaltender Dan Vladar (upper-body injury) and forward Christian Dvorak (lower-body injury) are day-to-day and will not play today.
Kolsov, who was playing for the Phantoms, will be dressed for the game today but it’s unclear if he’ll start. Most likely head coach Rick Tocchet will go with Sam Ersson today as the Flyers don’t have a game tomorrow. Depending on how long Vladar is out, it’s possible Kolosov will see action in one of the two back-to-back games the Flyers play this coming week. Philadelphia hosts Vancouver on Monday night before flying to Chicago to play the following evening against the Blackhawks. Kolosov is 6-8-1 with the Phantoms while sporting a 2.77 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage.
Kolosov has played in two games for the Flyers this year. He played 15:41 in what was essentially mop up time on Nov. 1 when Philadelphia lost to Toronto 5-2. But he played the full contest the next night against visiting Calgary, a game the Flyers lost 2-1. He’s given up 2 goals on 28 shots for a .929 save percentage. Meanwhile, the bigger news might be the status of Vladar. Vladar played Tuesday night against Montreal in Philadelphia’s 4-1 win but obviously isn’t 100 per cent to go today. The injury hasn’t been revealed outside of being an upper-body injury. Hopefully it has nothing to do with the contact a Carolina player made to Vladar’s head last Sunday during a shootout. Vladar remained in the game and didn’t look any worse for wear. Nor did he look to be suffering any effects of the collision on Tuesday night.
Elsewhere, it’s possible that the calling up of winger Denver Barkey Friday night might have been a preemptive move with the status of Dvorak. Dvorak played over 18 minutes (18:37) Thursday night in the Flyers’ 5-3 loss to the Sabres. The center has seven goals and 16 assists for 23 points this season and has been part of the Flyers best offensive line alongside Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny. The loss of Dvorak for Saturday game leaves a bigger hole down the middle for a team already thin at center. With Dvorak’s absence, the Flyers will definitely be juggling some lines Saturday afternoon. The injury to Dvorak should almost guarantee the NHL debut of Barkey today.
The game is the first of the season against the Rangers who have been a hair shy of utterly dreadful at home. New York is 4-10-3 and have been shut out six times at Madison Square Garden so far this year.
