The Philadelphia Flyers could have one of the brightest futures in between the pipes with top-end prospects in the goaltending position. But, the goalies to have to play actual hockey games to develop their game and be good enough for the NHL. Yegor Zavragin is not doing that.
Granted, it’s still relatively early in the KHL regular season, but Zavragin has yet to see a minute of action with SKA St. Petersburg through the club’s first four games. According to the team’s official site, Zavragin is on the roster but has goose eggs right across the board for every stat. Artemy Pleshkov thus far has played 208:22 while Sergei Ivanov has picked up the slack with 35:18 of ice time. So for Zavragin, it’s been a case of nyet, not net.
That’s not to say Zavragin hasn’t seen any action at all with SKA — it’s just not in games that matter. According to reports, he played in a 2-1 victory on Aug. 29 during SKA’s pre-season schedule. And over the weekend SKA played Lada and Zavragin at least dressed and served as the backup to Pleshkov. But again Zavragin never saw any ice in the 6-1 SKA victory. And he was also the backup to Pleshkov in their Sept. 11 contest against Traktor Chelyabinsk as well as their Sept. 8 contest, again supporting Pleshkov. Zavragin was completely out of the mix for SKA’s season opener against Shanghai as the team went with the tandem of Pleshkov and Ivanov.
It’s not exactly a case of SKA head coach Igor Larionov wanting to go to a much older, veteran goaltender as Pleshkov is just 22 years old (he turns 23 in October) and Ivanov is 21. Zavragin just turned 20 a few weeks ago. It’s one of the youngest goaltending tandems (or trios) in the KHL. So it’s not youth that is working against Zavragin in getting playing time. As well, SKA has won its last two games with Pleshkov between the pipes, so it’s doubtful that Larionov is going to opt for Zavragin if Pleshkov is riding a rather short hot streak.
What does this mean? Well, we can’t read his mind from across the Atlantic Ocean or even understand what he’s saying, but the longer it goes with Zavragin seeing no playing time it feels like there could be a greater possibility that he will want to play elsewhere and seek a trade to get some action in the KHL. Of course an injury to Pleshkov or Ivanov should see Zavragin back in the mix, but would the Flyers or Zavragin really want to see him waste such a crucial season of development in the hopes he plays with SKA?
Last year, Zavragin signed a three-year deal to stay with SKA St. Petersburg through the 2026-27 season. Maybe this inactivity is just because they know they have him no matter what through the next two seasons so they can opt to play goaltenders who are in a less concrete contractual situation. Or, they just don’t like the youngest netminder that they have.
Last season played 43 games overall in the KHL, split between SKA and HC Sochi. After being acquired by SKA in May 2024, the very young Zavragin was loaned to HC Sochi to get some actual playing time at the low-level KHL club (not unlike Matvei Michkov was before he joined the Flyers last summer). But after earning an insane .941 save percentage through six games, he was recalled and ended up finishing with 37 total appearances for SKA at just 19 years old. He finished that season with a combined 20-14-3 record and a .917 save percentage.
There’s no inclination SKA is discussing moving Zavragin elsewhere, so for now he’ll just have to ride it out. However, if the Flyers and general manager Danny Briere have any clout in possibly getting Zavragin out of this current delayed start to his 2025-26 season, they might be making some phone calls and working hard to get it dealt with. Or, maybe Zavragin will just want to come over to North America earlier than expected and want out of his contract — we can dream, right?
