Top Flyers Prospect Surprisingly Changes Agents

According to Philadelphia Flyers general manager Danny Briere, top goalie prospect Alexei Kolosov has changed his representation and switched agents.

Kolosov, 22, is currently in the second year of the three-year, entry-level contract negotiated by well-known agent J.P. Barry, who works for CAA Sports’ hockey division. However, the issue at hand is that it is currently unclear whether Kolosov is returning to North America from Belarus to play for the Flyers organization this year or not.

The Flyers have not heard one way or the other on that front, and the fact that Kolosov has changed his agent so late into the NHL offseason only raises further questions with just weeks to go until training camp and preseason.

“Nothing has been said directly to us. And, again, Alexei doesn’t speak English. So, we can’t just grab the phone and call him,” Briere said in a short clip posted by the Nasty Knuckles podcast on Twitter/X on Sunday evening.

“It was tough to get answers from his agent. . . or clear answers. There’s always dancing around the pot. He just changed agents in the last few days, so we were just notified of that.”

Alexei Kolosov has changed agents

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Reports have been circulating this offseason suggesting that Kolosov was unhappy during his very short time in North America, though the Flyers have insisted that their staff worked with the player daily and weren’t aware of any issues under the hood.

But, the fact that this saga is still ongoing suggests there is a bit more to the situation than meets the eye.

Kolosov is not likely to change his agent for no reason, either. Fans will recall that another high-profile player, Flyers captain Sean Couturier, changed agents at the end of the 2023-24 season, dropping Erik Lupien in favor of Pat Brisson, who also works at CAA.

Couturier’s decision came on the heels of the healthy scratch debacle that appeared to have been the result of miscommunication between himself, his agent, and Flyers head coach John Tortorella.

It is also worth noting that Kolosov technically cannot sign another contract for another club, such as his former KHL club Dinamo Minsk unless he wants to face tertiary punishments from the IIHF, similar to Ivan Fedotov and CSKA Moscow.

The Flyers already loaned Kolosov back to Minsk once—last season—as a favor to him, and it doesn’t appear likely they’ll be willing to do so again.

The full Nasty Knuckles episode with Briere drops on Monday morning and perhaps will have more information on the situation then.