Flyers Assign Star Goalie to AHL; What it Means

The wait was much longer than anticipated for the Philadelphia Flyers, but the deal has finally been sealed.

On Tuesday, the Flyers officially announced that star goalie prospect Alexei Kolosov was re-assigned from his KHL club, HC Dinamo Minsk, to his new AHL club, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

A team source previously indicated to Philly Hockey Now that Kolosov was likely AHL bound after his season had concluded. Kolosov’s last game for Minsk, however, was on March 12, so the wait was extended a little longer than the Flyers had hoped.

Flyers general manager Danny Briere shared last week that the delay with Kolosov was related to acquiring a work visa and other immigration processes the Belarusian goalie had to go through first.

“It seems it just gets pushed out and pushed out. We were hoping he’d be here by now,” Briere had said. “I think soon, I just don’t have an exact day for him.”

Soon has finally arrived for the Flyers, and now their top goaltending prospect will get to try his hand at the North American game to get some experience before the end of the 2023-24 season.

Kolosov was also present in Philadelphia on Monday night, taking in the Flyers’ devastating 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders after they staged an epic comeback in the dying seconds of the third period.

The Flyers have only six games left on their schedule, set to take place across the next 14 days. With Ivan Fedotov also impressing in his NHL debut on Monday night, it’s unlikely there’s any room for Kolosov to get some seasoning and then make an NHL debut of his own.

That, I would assume, will have to wait until next season, at the earliest.

Kolosov finished his KHL career with a 49-56-10 record, a .909 save percentage, and a 2.56 GAA across 120 appearances.

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