The Philadelphia Flyers’ rebuild is starting to turn the corner.
They ended their playoff drought last season and even won a round. The veterans are leading the way, as Travis Konecny was once again the team’s leading scorer for the fifth-straight season, and there are a bunch of young players showing promise as well.
While we’ve seen the likes of Matvei Michkov and Porter Martone in the NHL, and even Oliver Bonk and David Jiricek got a cup of coffee on the blue line. Flyers fans are still waiting to get their eyes on top goalie prospect Yegor Zavragin, though.
The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler released his top 100 skater prospects earlier this week, ranking Martone near the top. He then put out his top 20 goalie prospect rankings on Wednesday.
Wheeler considers a goalie a “prospect” if they are under 25 years old and have not fully established themselves as an NHL goalie.
The Flyers once again had a representative on this list in the aforementioned Zavragin.
Jacob Fowler, who was excellent for the Montreal Canadiens down the stretch and into the playoffs, was on a tier of his own at the top. There was then a second tier of No. 2 through No. 9, another of 10-16, and then the rest.
Yegor Zavragin ranked as the 10th-best NHL goalie prospect
Zavragin didn’t quite make the second tier, but he was the first name on Wheeler’s Tier 3 list.
Here is what Wheeler had to say about the 6-foot-2, 183-pound netminder who turns 21 next month:
“Zavragin is a talented goaltender who has followed a steep development curve at an early age already.
Zavragin rose to KHL prominence as a teenager after playing superbly at lower levels, emerging as one of the better young goalies in Russia. He’s still only 20 (he’ll turn 21 at the end of August) and already has a .918 save percentage across 55 KHL games split between Sochi and SKA.
Zavragin’s athleticism really stands out. He has an impressive ability to go post-to-post and low-to-high, and good reflexes and hands even when he’s moving. Where most young goalies who move to pucks can lose their posts and pull themselves out of position, he also has good control of his game and a willingness to battle when he does get scrambled. He has great hands and reflexes. He sticks with shooters one-on-one and excels on breakaways/penalty shots.
Of note: His current contract expires at the end of the 2026-27 season, so a move to North America could be one season away now.“
There was a report this spring that Zavragin may have been signing his entry-level contract with the Flyers this offseason, but, of course, that wasn’t the case. As Wheeler notes, Zavragin has one year left on his KHL contract before he could come over to North America.
While some Flyers fans may be worried that the team’s supposed franchise-changing goalie of the future is only ranked 10th, it’s an improvement over last year’s ranking, in which Wheeler had the Russian netminder at 17th.
It’s also important to remember that development isn’t linear, especially for goalies. This is the one position where it’s hard to truly project what a player will turn into at the NHL level, unless they’re above and beyond their peers at a young age.
Granted, Zavragin has put up numbers in the KHL comparable — or even better than — some of the best Russian goalies in the league today at his age. It’s not very often you see a teenager (or 20-year-old) mind the net for a top team in the KHL, let alone do so at a high level.
Zavragin’s .918 save percentage over the last three seasons ranks 33rd in the KHL, and 22nd among goalies who have played as many games (55) as he has. And in the VHL, which is Russia’s equivalent of the AHL, Zavragin’s .949 save percentage in 19 games led the league last season.
The Russian netminder should come to North America for the 2027-28 season, but the Flyers won’t look to rush him to the NHL. Dan Vladar is under contract now through 2032, and Joseph Woll through 2028. Then there is Carson Bjarnason and possibly Aleksei Kolosov, who could serve as emergency call-ups if needed.
