Flyers Prospects
Report: Top Flyers Goalie Prospect May Return to KHL
According to a report from Belarus Hockey, top Philadelphia Flyers goalie prospect Alexei Kolosov could return to the KHL to play for former club Dinamo Minsk after struggling to adapt to North America.
Belarus Hockey correspondent Stepan Voronkov reported Thursday that “The hockey player has problems with adaptation in North America.”
Recall that just over a month ago, on April 2, Kolosov officially joined the Flyers organization and was re-assigned from Minsk to the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms. The 22-year-old played in only two games for the Phantoms, winning one and losing the other.
Kolosov made his professional debut for the Flyers organization on Saturday, April 13, stopping 24 of 28 shots in a 5-4 Phantoms win over the Bridgeport Islanders. The Flyers starlet was much improved in his next start exactly one week later, making 22 saves on 24 shots in a 2-0 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on Saturday, April 20.
Overall, Kolosov finished this brief cameo in North America with a 1-1-0 record, a 3.03 GAA, and a .885 save percentage. He did not get an opportunity to play for the Phantoms in the Calder Cup playoffs; Cal Petersen was instead the starter for Lehigh Valley.
It is possible but not overly likely that the Flyers played too conservatively with Kolosov and should have instead given the Belarusian shot-stopper a better chance of playing games. Kolosov had already supplanted castaway Felix Sandstrom as the Phantoms’ backup goalie but, for whatever reason, was not able to take minutes from Petersen, who struggled just as much as Sandstrom at both the AHL and NHL levels this season.
Voronkov’s report has not been confirmed by any of Kolosov’s representatives or by Minsk or the Flyers. If Voronkov’s report is accurate, though, the Flyers will likely need to turn to the 2024 NHL Draft to restock their goalie pipeline once again.
Russian standout Egor Zavragin and Brandon Wheat Kings star Carson Bjarnason are both still a handful of years away from turning pro. Outside of those two and Kolosov, the Flyers have their two NHL goalies, Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov.
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Why would he give up on his nhl dream after playing two games. Give me a break. If he does go back, I would think it’s more about family than it is about adapting to playing in North America. I don’t believe this report what so ever.
I agree. It seems very out of the blue.
Gotta be more to this story….something seems off.
Maybe it’s just me, but the Flyers seem overly reliant on players from Russia and Eastern Europe. Maybe it’s time to stock the pipeline with prospects that won’t have to deal with an uncooperative government or travel halfway around the world to play here.
At the same time, maybe it’s worth looking at whether there is something going on with the Flyers organization. They just lost a highly-touted Swedish prospect (Cutter Gauthier) and now appear to be in danger of losing their top goalie prospect from Belarus.
Maybe the Flyers have to do more to make these players feel welcome, or maybe the Flyers are overly rigid on having their prospects spend a lengthy amount of time in the minors.
It could be these players expect to be playing in the NHL immediately, and then the reality of playing in the Flyers minor league system for a couple of years (with risk of injury or never getting called up) not seeming too appealing.
Maybe…
Cutter is not Swedish, he is American. The Flyers are a very welcoming organization. I hope the young man goes home and returns at some point in the near future.
Joseph –
Thanks for the correction on Cutter’s nationality, and I also like to think of the Flyers as a great (and welcoming) team to be a part of.
Personally, I think the problem lies with the Phantoms and the way the organization gets their prospects ready for the NHL. I don’t see a whole lot of development of highly-touted prospects at the AHL level. I don’t see any timeline or benchmarks as to what the players assigned there need to do to progress up to the NHL level.
I don’t even see an emphasis at the minor league on some basic things. I’ve watched enough Phantoms games to believe that the team is undisciplined and takes a lot of unnecessary penalties. That’s not going to help them when (or if) they make it to the Flyers (and Coach T.), yet the problem persists and the Phantoms coaches don’t seem to hold the players accountable.
Having players play for the Phantoms indefinitely until they magically progress to being NHL worthy might be fine for some of their players, but for top-ranked prospects that might not be too appealing. Particularly when they see top prospects on other teams going directly to the NHL. So there might be an issue of managing expectations for the higher-level prospects.
I could be wrong about this, and maybe it’s just a matter of keeping the expectations of some players in line with the organization.
It just seems odd that we’re now possibly losing a second top prospect if Kolosov leaves. I don’t want to wait until we lose a third to start finding out if there’s a problem, and where it is.