When asked about the status of goaltender prospect Ivan Fedotov in his end of season media availability on Tuesday, GM Chuck Fletcher noted that the Flyers were close to having a deal worked out with him, and hoped to have that done soon. And it sure did end up being soon! The Flyers just announced that they have signed Fedotov to a one-year (shorter because of his age of 25) entry level deal. They’ll be getting to work to get the details squared away to have him join the team for next season, and as Fletcher said in that aforementioned presser, he feels good about their ability to get that done.
Fedotov, the 2015 7th round pick (who, in case you hadn’t heard, is 6’8”), is coming in with quite an impressive resume already. His first two full seasons in the KHL saw him post a .933 save percentage in 2019-20 and .925 save percentage in 2020-21 with Traktor Chelyabinsk. This season he continued that run of stellar play with a new team in CSKA Moscow. He put up a .919 save percentage and 2 GAA in 26 regular season games, but really turned it on for the playoffs—over 22 postseason games, he posted a .937 SV% and a 1.85 GAA, backstopping his team to a win of the KHL’s Gagarin Cup. Add into that a .943 SV% six-game run in the Olympics, and we’d call this one a pretty successful season for Fedotov. Not too shabby at all.
Now, we know that the starting gig for the Flyers is all but locked up by Carter Hart (particularly after the very good work he did to rebound last season after a brutal 2020-21), but the backup job is very much up for grabs. It certainly isn’t going to be one that the team is just going to hand to Fedotov, but he’s still certainly going to be in the mix to earn it out of camp. It’s going to be interesting, as he joins the likes of Felix Sandstrom, Samuel Ersson, and Kirill Ustimenko all jockeying for top position on the organizational depth chart, but a bit of healthy competition never hurt anybody, right?
All the same, the Flyers have been chipping away at their to do list and getting their prospects signed, and it’s nice to see that they were able to get Fedotov added into the fold. He’s a nice official addition to the organization, indeed.
