The Philadelphia Flyers have made their first transaction of the summer. People in the streets holding hands and joining in chorus because we have something so wonderful as a hockey transaction to talk about as we head into the offseason.
Announced by the team on Friday morning, the Flyers have signed goaltender Aleksei Kolosov to a one-year contract with an $850,000 AAV. It’s certainly a signing.
Kolosov was going to be a restricted free agent this summer and this is his first contract out of his entry-level deal.
While excitement around Kolosov was palpable as he was looking like a very good young netminder in the KHL a couple years ago, there has not been a whole lot of positivity about his time in North America. The 24-year-old came over and played his first full season just last year, in what is now a fairly notorious season due to there being rumors of the young netminder thinking he is too good for the AHL, but then looking not good at all while in the NHL.
Kolosov did eventually play for the Phantoms in that first full North American season, but an .884 save percentage in 12 games in the minors and then an .867 save percentage in 17 games for the Flyers, just is not good.
After having that season, Kolosov accepted that he should be in Lehigh Valley. This past season, in 38 games he had an .895 save percentage and had moments where he looked like a solid goalie prospect. Which makes it much more interesting that the Flyers are keeping him around for a little bit longer.
What’s next for Kolosov with the Flyers?
When looking at the makeup of the Flyers’ crease, it might just be more of the same. Him and Carson Bjarnason have been a decent tandem for the Phantoms and now both are going to be returning there for next season.
We would normally speculate that maybe Kolosov can overtake Sam Ersson and be Dan Vladar’s backup next season, but after Ersson had a solid last stretch of the season and potentially saved his career, it feels unlikely. And the Flyers might want to upgrade on Ersson anyways and get a more established NHL netminder to run a solid tandem in the crease next season. Kolosov is not part of that equation.
If anything, they’re just running it back with the same goalies they have.
There is the Yegor Zavragin of it all, as it was rumored earlier this year that the Flyers could be bringing him over to North America a year earlier than expected. The 20-year-old netminder would theoretically leapfrog Kolosov in the depth chart and either be the Phantoms starter until he proves he doesn’t belong in the AHL, or the Flyers have enough confidence in him to be the NHL backup. But that’s obviously a big risk.
Either way, the Flyers do have at least more certainty in between the pipes by keeping Kolosov around for another year.
