It’s been a busy couple of days of introductions around here, working our way through the full compliment of players on the Flyers’ training camp roster at both the forward and defense positions, and now we’re finally able to round it out with a quick roll call of the camp’s mix of goaltenders (a group which has been whittled down slightly since the trade which shipped out Ivan Fedotov over the weekend).
Sam Ersson: While there are still some questions left open about Ersson’s ceiling and level or workload he’s able to handle across the whole of a season, there’s no question that he’s established himself as an NHL player by this point. There might be battles unfolding elsewhere on the roster for open spots, but Ersson’s spot in the lineup is about as locked in as one could possibly be.
Dan Vladar: The big addition in the offseason to help shore up the NHL goaltending tandem, Vladar will still have to prove himself as a stable second half of that tandem, but his spot in the NHL lineup isn’t really in question. The hope is that he can make a solid first impression through camp, but this isn’t really a make or break situation for him and his spot or standing with the team. More importantly, he’ll want to get comfortable with the defensemen playing in front of them and the new system being put in place, and just begin to get settled in with his new organization.
Carson Bjarnason: After a bit of a false start with the Phantoms during the postseason — wherein he was able to practice with the team and technically dress to back up for their final game, but wasn’t actually healthy enough to be thrown in to face any action — Bjarnason it set to make his real professional debut this fall. He’ll all but surely have a chance to continue to build on his rookie camp performance, which was something of a mixed bag, but his time in NHL camp will be less about fighting for an NHL job, and more about building a springboard to jump well into AHL camp, and keep things building in the right direction, heading into the regular season.
Aleksei Kolosov: All of the drama around Kolosov — the holdout in reporting to last year’s camp, the reported resistance to being assigned to the Phantoms throughout last season — seems to have died down, and he’s set to join this year’s camp as scheduled. And while the team surely won’t be closing the door on a camp battle at the goaltending position, there’s no chance that they’ll be pushed to attempt a three goalie rotation again this year, after how catastrophically poorly it went for them last year. And with the addition of the much more established Vladar, it would take a truly exceptional camp from Kolosov to push him out of the backup spot. More likely, Kolosov will be sent to the AHL to begin the season, where he’ll be able to get the much needed reps to actually develop his game.
Keith Petruzzelli: The first of the two goaltenders in this camp on AHL contracts, Petruzzelli was re-signed in the summer and will be returning for his second season in the Flyers’ organization. He made a few good starts with the Phantoms last season, but they came as an injury call-up, and he spent the bulk of his season down in Reading with the Royals, and the expectation is that he’ll play a similar role this season, as the emphasis at the AHL level will be on getting starts for those two prospects to continue to develop.
Yaniv Perets: Perets was the other bit of organizational depth brought in this summer on an AHL contract, expected to play a similar role as Petruzzelli down in Reading. But he certainly also comes in as an especially interesting case — he’s still just 25 and played games in both the AHL and NHL (well, game, in the latter) last season, so it will be interesting to see how and if he’s able to continue to build up his projection this season. He’ll play some games through the preseason, and it will be interesting to see how he looks in those settings, but he’s still all but a certainty to begin the season with the Royals.
Joey Costanzo: The final goalie in this mix — and the only invite at this position — is Costanzo, who was in the mix to help fill out the roster and offer some support to Bjarnason, and will be given a bit longer of a runway to see what he’s able to do as main camp opens up. He’s set to return to Windsor of the OHL to play out his final season of eligibility in that league, so he won’t be in the mix for an NHL roster spot out of camp, but with a strong performance, he can put himself into consideration to earn a professional contract at some level down the line a bit.
