An Overlooked Guardian of the Blue Paint the Flyers should look to select Late in this year’s Draft 

Photo Credit: Hamilton Bulldogs

Philadelphia Flyers management finally did something right this off-season when they signed their 2015 7^th-round pick goaltender Ivan Fedotov. Ivan, who stands at 6’8 and 203 pounds, has been excelling playing in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in his native Russia for parts of six seasons now. But what may have solidified the Flyers decision to bring him over finally was Fedotov’s fantastic play in this year’s Olympic Games. In six games played for Russia, Ivan averaged a 1.61 goals-against-average (GAA) which he paired with a .943 save percentage (SV%) while achieving a record of 4-2-0, with two of those wins being shutouts. This effort was good enough to see him and the rest of his Russian comrades take home the Silver Medal. But Ivan wasn’t done there. Upon returning to Russia after the Olympic games (with his country nearing a war with Ukraine), Ivan took it upon himself to help his team, the CSKA, raise the Gagarin Cup (the KHL’s league championship) this past season. With all these accolades now behind him, Fedotov now looks destined to take goaltender Martin Jones previous role as Philadelphia’s 1B option sharing a net with Carter Hart this season for the Flyers. 

With that being said, this now leaves a big hole in-between the pipes within the Flyers’ prospect pool. Sure, the team has gone out the past couple of drafts and utilized some pretty high draft picks on some goaltenders, but to date, the majority has not quite lived up to expectations. Alexei Kolosov was the latest the team selected back in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft when they took him with their 3^rd round pick. But this now 20-year-old let up an average of four goals a game in the KHL playoffs this season. Samuel Ersson, the Flyers’ 2018 5^th-round selection, played in just five AHL games this year for the Phantoms, where he gave up nearly three goals a game, finishing with a record of zero wins and three losses. Then there’s 2017’s 3^rd round pick Kirill Ustimenko who, since making a name for himself back in the 2019-20 season with the Flyers ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals, he has not been able to advance his game due to injuries. Perhaps the only other goaltender in the team’s system to make any noise was their 2015 3^rd-round pick, Felix Sandström. But is recording a record of 16-18-6 this year for the Phantoms really anything to write home about? I mean, the Flyers did give him a chance to start with the big club this year, where in five games played with the orange and black, Sandström averaged a 3.23 GAA and recorded a record of 0-4-1. 

So, in this old goaltender’s mind, Philadelphia should show one or two of these previously mentioned failed prospects the door this off-season, seeing that they are impending restricted free agents. To make room for the team to be able to try and restock the cupboard by selecting yet another one again this summer. Only this time, I don’t think the team should utilize such a high draft pick to try and do so. Many Mock Drafts have several goalies this year going as early as the second or third round, but I think this is more out of team’s necessity than the prospects’ skill. There’s not one goalie in this year’s Draft whose play is anywhere close to last year’s Sebastian Cossa, who Detroit selected with the 15^th overall pick. Sadly, most of this year’s crop is like the top-ranked goaltender Tyler Brennan who played for the Prince George Cougars of the WHL this year. They do one or two things well, but they are lacking overall. For example, this year, in 39 regular-season games played, Brennan, averaged an embarrassing 3.58 GAA and a .899 SV%. Where with those stats, he finished the year with a dismal 11-25-2 record. Now, I don’t care how bad your team is; if you’re the top-rated goalie coming out of this Draft, there’s no way you should be posting these types of numbers. If you can’t carry your team in Juniors, how will you ever carry a struggling NHL franchise that selects you? 

This is where a little film watching comes in handy. While other teams are left searching through the sieves that call themselves goalies coming out for the first time this year. The Flyers should be looking to select one of last year’s leftover models. That player being 19-year-old goaltender Marco Costantini who played for the Ontario Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs this year. Marco is a 6’1 185-pound butterfly goaltender who covers the bottom of the net insanely well. He has surpassed most in his class by developing a near-effortless movement across the goal mouth which helps him to always be square to the shooter. When he goes down, he remains tall in the net with good posture and high hands, enabling him to give nothing for opposition to shoot at.   

Costantini played in 45 regular season games this season, where he posted a 2.32 goals-against-average and a .917 save percentage. His play helped the Bulldogs achieve a record of 31 wins, nine losses, and four overtime losses while he was in net this season, with 6 of those wins coming by way of a shutout. But Marco’s play somehow only seemed to get better come playoff time, where he was able to help his team become the league’s Champions hoisting the Ross Robertson Cup by posting an incredible 0.842 win percentage while averaging only a 2.29 GAA and a .913 SV% through 19 games played. 

By now, you may be wondering how a netminder that has been honored with countless OHL Save of the Night, Goaltender of the Week/Goaltender of the Month nominations went undrafted last July, so I’m here to tell you. Last year when Costantini was due to be drafted, the Ontario Hockey League did not play a single game seeing that they chose to shut down due to COVID. Therefore, Marco did not get the chance like other players to go somewhere else and play for the season; he merely was left to hone his craft on his own and come back this season with something to prove and prove something he did. But sadly, even with Marco dominating the competition this year, he is still being overlooked by most scouts simply because of his age. Now, would I go as far as saying Costantini is a perfect goaltender? NO, I would not. I think that he still needs to work on not giving up so many rebounds so that in the future, he may not need to make so many unbelievable stops on second or third chances as he did this year. With that being said, I think Marco is still one of the most complete goaltenders available in this year’s Draft. That’s why Costantini will prove to be a steal if the Flyers choose to draft him in the 6^th or 7^th round in the coming weeks. The only question is will Philly follow the masses and choose to blindly look over such a talented young netminder because he is a year older than the others in this year’s Draft? Or will they take off the blinders and see the true talent that is hiding in plain sight? We will just have to wait and find out.      

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