We didn’t think this would happen so quickly. Just 10 games into the Philadelphia Flyers’ season and there is already a significant shift in the goaltending depth chart.
No waiting around to see how things play out in this find-out season; the Flyers are acting fast and on Thursday morning, before they host the St. Louis Blues on Halloween night, head coach John Tortorella made it somewhat clear. The 22-year-old Aleksei Kolosov has overtaken Ivan Fedotov for the Flyers’ backup goaltending role.
All it took was one appearance in the NHL and a couple practices with the team for this decision to be made. And honestly, considering Kolosov’s single start was in a losing effort as he allowed four goals on 24 shots against the Montreal Canadiens, it is certainly more about Fedotov stinking it up to start his year.
In the 28-year-old’s three starts this season, Fedotov has allowed 14 goals on 78 shots for an .821 save percentage and 5.35 goals against average. And to really put the nail in the coffin, according to MoneyPuck there have been only three goaltenders in the whole NHL who is having a worse season when looking at goals saved above expected (essentially taking expected goals against and comparing it to actual goals against). Just the Avalanche’s Alexandar Georgiev (minus-10.2 GSAx), Utah’s Connor Ingram (minus-6.6), and the Canucks’ Arturs Silovs (minus-5.2) have a lower goals saved above expected than Fedotov’s minus-5.1. Add in the context that Ingram and Georgiev have played nine and six games respectfully, there is an argument that Fedotov is the worst goaltender in the league this season.
It’s not just the numbers either, Fedotov has looked brutal out there. Allowing goals through his five hole like he’s a broken and busted shooter tutor, the Russian netminder just is not comfortable out there with the quality of player in the National.
And so, they turn to Kolosov. Without even a significantly better profile, the much younger Belarusian is going to be coming in for Sam Ersson when he needs it and at least looks so much more competent than the player that he is replacing.
But where do they go from here? With defenseman Cam York on the Injured Reserve list, the Flyers have the space to carry all three goaltenders on the roster. It does make things more complicated like practices and other general things, but for right now, that’s what they are doing. Eventually York will come back and the Flyers will have to have a conversation with Fedotov — maybe they send him down on an AHL conditioning stint, just directly on waivers to demote him permanently, or if they are bold enough, they can have a real heart-to-heart to see if he wants to go back to the KHL. That last option will probably not happen for a while — because why terminate a contract that pays you millions? — but it might be a talking point later on in the season if he’s not even capable of playing up to AHL speed.
