This entire saga surrounding Alexei Kolosov’s unwillingness to play ball and go through the typical development path that almost every other goaltender that has found success in the NHL, has gone through, might be coming to a close. The Philadelphia Flyers prospect has started to draw some trade interest from the league after not showing up to his current team’s development camp or training camp this month. Now, he could be shown the door and handed to another team that might be able to convince him that he should play in the AHL to actually earn some big-league minutes.
Spoiled prospect aside, Kolosov has shown he has a level of talent that some teams desperately need in their goaltending pipeline. At 22 years old, he has cemented himself as a starter in one of the best leagues in the world, the KHL, and is signed to an NHL contract so there is not any complicated paperwork needed to get him overseas.
If he convinces a team that he won’t pull the same stunt he did with the Flyers, then they certainly want to buy low on a potential solid goaltender prospect and that would make sense for some teams to do. But what teams specifically?
For one, they need to have at least some pathway for Kolosov to play NHL games this season. That’s what he wants. It is incredibly difficult when all 31 other teams have their tandem established because the 2024-25 season starts in less than a month, but if they are a little shallow at the backup spot, or is just one injury away from needing some help, then it could work out.
Second, there can’t be a top-tier goaltender prospect already in the organization. The Minnesota Wild have Jesper Wallstedt, the Detroit Red Wings have Sebastian Cossa, the Buffalo Sabres have Devon Levi, the Calgary Flames have Dustin Wolf — you get the picture. For the acquiring team, Kolosov should be instantly the best prospect in between the pipes in his age range. Of course, maybe a freshly drafted netminder that is five years younger than Kolosov, might not affect a team’s decision all that much.
These requirements make it ultimately more simple to narrow down some teams who could be interested. Now, we could be very wrong and a team that already has a good prospect in the crease could just acquire Kolosov for some competition — but we would probably all question that decision any ways.
Los Angeles Kings
Starting on the west coast, aside from being a lovely destination for a foreign player to dream about playing in — with the glitz and glam of Hollywood and the sunshine so far away from Belarus — when it comes to the actual roster, acquiring Kolosov might make a lot of sense for the Kings.
In this post-Quick era, the Kings are currently depending on cap-dump Darcy Kuemper and a combination of David Rittich and Phoenix Copley to be the tandem that pushes this team into a playoff spot. Because, after all, with this roster, this is a team that is hoping to make the playoffs and potentially win the division. And that tandem is looking rough.
If Kolosov goes to Southern California, and lights it up for the first couple of months in the AHL and Kuemper and Rittich or Copley struggle at all, he could be seeing the NHL before year’s end. And suddenly, if he plays well, the Kings have a goaltender who can grow with the Quinton Byfield-led young core of this team as the championship-earning crowd starts to retire. It sort of just makes sense for Los Angeles.
And, they have a 2026 second-round pick that might be burning a hole in Rob Blake’s wallet.
Seattle Kraken
We don’t have to leave the stinky Pacific Division to find another possible landing spot for this melodramatic goaltender. The Kraken, right now, are leaning on Philipp Grubauer to not be an absolute sinkhole in between the pipes and recent call-up Joey Daccord, to try and be the goaltenders for a team that is trying to be competitive.
Those dudes are fine if you want to just be a mediocre team and can’t invest as heavily in the crease as some other clubs, but c’mon man, it’s really just depending on some brief performances to carry through the season. And with no long-term plan in place for the Kraken, it feels like they should maybe try and acquire that.
Utah Hockey Club
If we’re talking about teams who have no real plan in place, Utah feels right in that echelon. Clearly, they want to shed the perpetually crap skin of the Coyotes and start their first season in their new location playing some respectable hockey. Acquiring Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino to solidify their blue line shows exactly that.
As for their goaltending, Karel Vejmelka and Connor Ingram is certainly a pairing that they could have for the next couple of years and shouldn’t find any problem with. Both are solid netminders who can shift back-and-forth starting roles in a tandem that isn’t as clearly defined as others.
But when it comes to younger prospects, there really isn’t a whole lot. In the AHL, it’s a whole bunch of similarly aged, mid-20s goaltenders who don’t really spell out Goaltender of the Future, so putting Kolosov in there might provide a little bit of forward-looking hope for a team that wants to cement themselves.
Now, it might not be the situation that Kolosov wants to be in, though. Ingram and Vejmelka are certainly more stable NHLers than Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov — so if he was upset with his situation in Philadelphia, in Utah it would be roughly tenfold, and he would be depending on an injury or two to really get in the NHL at some point in the 2024-25 season.
Washington Capitals
The Capitals have spent their entire summer trying to put enough talent on their current roster to just stay afloat and not be an embarrassment during Alex Ovechkin’s final days. Now, what if they focused just a smidge on the future?
Their current NHL tandem of Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson is respectable and fits exactly with the rest of their roster in the sense that they can either overperform and somehow end up in the playoffs, or be an absolute disaster and provide a season of failure. Add in the context that they are both unrestricted free agents next summer, and their entire situation in between the pipes is incredibly wide open.
Arguably, this is one situation where Kolosov might be fine being in the AHL for a little bit longer than he would be for other teams. When it comes to Ersson and Fedotov, with both players being young enough and under contract long enough, to keep the 22-year-old netminder out of the NHL for longer than he wants, it makes a little bit of sense from his point of view. In Washington, one can imagine the situation that he would be content spending the entire season in the AHL with the knowledge that he would be penciled in for the 2025-26 Capitals roster.
Now, would the Capitals want to part with a decent draft pick, that could help them in their post-Ovechkin times? Maybe, maybe not.
New Jersey Devils
Nothing personal, but if Kolosov was traded to the Devils, we would be praying that he would never be good enough to even make the NHL or even be labeled as a starter in this league. But, unfortunately, it kind of makes sense for New Jersey to take this chance.
They have Jacob Markstrom as their starter for the next two years, and as their backup, they currently have one year of Jake Allen and then who the hell knows. Theoretically, that makes it extremely easy to see Kolosov as the NHL backup for the 2025-26 season and then him maybe take the reins as he gets into his mid-20s. That would be the logical path that we can all draw is this trade was to go down.
There is more of an existing foundation in New Jersey than with any other team we have previously mentioned. Markstrom would provide the team security as they try to develop Kolosov into their next starter, and it could go all according to plan in this way.
Edmonton Oilers
A team that needs to win right now isn’t likely to try and solve their goaltending problem with a 22-year-old Belarusian guy who is disgruntled enough to want out from an organization that he has not played for yet — but crazier things have happened.
Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard make up the current NHL tandem for the Oilers and that doesn’t spell out a lot of hope of lifting Stanley Cups in the near future. And coming down the pipeline, there isn’t a lot of hope until recently drafted 18-year-old Eemil Vinni to rest their laurels on. Their whole situation just feels so uncertain in the crease and if Kolosov is confident enough that he can beat out Skinner or Pickard, then maybe he really wants to go up north to Alberta.
It’s another team that could have Kolosov in the NHL if he’s playing well enough in the minors and one of their netminders suffers an injury. Hell, that could happen as soon as November or December if everything breaks right. But, everything has to break right.
We can just see the Oilers really wanting to get their Next Guy to not have every single fan concerned about a team that is so talented in every other position and could win multiple championships if they just figured it out in between the pipes.
