Training camp has not even started for the Philadelphia Flyers but they have been making moves to finalize at least parts of their roster for the 2025-26 season. Such as, trading one of their goaltenders.
Reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman early Sunday morning, the Flyers are trading netminder Ivan Fedotov to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Some news today: Philadelphia will be trading Ivan Fedotov to Columbus
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 14, 2025
Blue Jackets have been looking to add a goalie, now they have
There has been no return reported but considering Fedotov is in the final year of his contract that carries an inflated $3.275-million AAV and he is coming off a debut NHL season where he had a miserable .880 save percentage and earned a 3.15 goals against average in 26 appearances for the Flyers last season, it will either be nothing at all or extremely little.
UPDATE:
It has now been confirmed that the Flyers are getting a 2026 sixth-round pick for the 28-year-old goaltender. Wow. And as The Athletic’s Chris Johnston mentions, Fedotov is carrying a significant cap hit, but his actual dollars owed is a league-minimum salary.
The #CBJ acquire goaltender Ivan Fedotov from #flyers for a 2026 sixth-round pick
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) September 14, 2025
Fedotov carries a $3.275M cap hit but is owed just $775,000 in actual salary this season
Incredibly low-cost bet for Columbus
With this being the end of Fedotov’s story in the Flyers organization, we can say that it has at least been an eventful and somewhat traumatic one. Once a fairly good prospect and one of the best goaltenders overseas — and garnering attention because he is 6-foot-7 and now holds the record of being the tallest netminder in NHL history — after playing the 2021-22 season with CSKA Moscow in the KHL, he signed his entry-level deal with the Flyers at 26 years old. Of course, he was aiming to join the NHL the following season but just weeks after signing that contract he was detained in Russia for allegedly evading mandatory military service and was sent to an extremely remote naval base in the very northwest of Russia, within the Arctic Circle.
He missed the entire 2022-23 season and after being once again one of the best netminders in Russia during the 2023-24 KHL season, he was actually able to come to the NHL for the last several games that year. He put up an .811 save percentage and a 4.95 goals against average in three games
Unfortunately, that bad spell of games only continued throughout the entire season last year and he was clearly out of his depths.
Now he moves to Columbus. The Blue Jackets traded last year’s second-string netminder Daniil Tarasov to the Florida Panthers this summer and while it was believed that this opens the backup role for good-story Jet Greaves, they’re bringing in Fedotov to be some more competition.
What this means for the Flyers
Now, going forward, the goaltending picture is much more clear. With the recent reports that maligned young goalie Aleksei Kolosov — who allegedly refused to play in the AHL and the Flyers tried their hardest to accommodate last season — is willing to report to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and the arrival of prospect Carson Bjarnson in the AHL, those two will form the tandem in Allentown.
The depth chart has been simplified. Sam Ersson and free agent signing Dan Vladar in Philadelphia, Bjarnason and Kolosov for the Phantoms.
Now, we just need the hockey season to start and the Flyers cleaned up the potential mess even before training camp starts next week.
