Aleksei Kolosov helped with the playoff push for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He won his second straight game when he was with the team about a month ago. Kolosov really elevated his game, since returning back to Lehigh, but then weirdly he was recalled to the Flyers right before former Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella was fired.
Kolosov earned a recall, and it was to my understanding before he went to back to Lehigh for this last stint, that he indeed loved playing in Lehigh. It was only getting better for him, when a Russian in Nikita Grebenkin joined the Phantoms.
What has been a bit perplexing, and possibly the weirdest situation of the 2024-25 season for the Flyers was their handling/usage of Kolosov. Just strange recalls all season long, coupled with using their last recall on him.
It has become apparent that former Flyers’ Head Coach John Tortorella wanted to recall Kolosov, when Ivan Fedotov was struggling. Tortorella deemed Fedotov as the third goalie, again, and he would only use Fedotov in emergency situations. Tortorella wanted to win, and that was the main disconnect with him and the front office. Now with Interim Head Coach Brad Shaw at the helm. He indeed played Kolosov in two games down the stretch, but he also failed to talk at exit interviews, thus leaving the heavy lifting to Flyers’ General Manager Danny Briere to iron out with the media, “He said he wasn’t happy with how his year went, but he learned a lot,” Briere said this past Saturday at this exit interview.
Briere also said he could not go into much detail about it. So on the surface it leaves one to ponder what’s next? Are the rumors true of him heading back to the KHL for the 2025-26 season? This are great questions that no one has an answer to, but Flyers management.
Personally, I do not believe he will back between the pipes for the orange and black next season, nor the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Briere said at his exit interview that they may possibly look at outside help for Goaltending, and to me that signals the end of Kolosov with the Flyers, regardless of the rumors that are surrounding him.
Ivan Fedotov is currently the Flyers backup Goaltender. He can be shipped to Lehigh if he was waived and cleared waivers, and that could very well transpire next season after Training Camp. Fedotov does not believe that will happen, which is a good mindset, but it’s still a possibility.
“We plan on playing him,” Flyers’ Interim Head Coach Brad Shaw said of Kolosov before he played in two games down the stretch. “There’s lots of different scenarios right now, so we are not sure when that is, but we anticipate him playing.”
As a young netminder in Kolosov, like most goalies, he needs time to develop. He appeared to be confident moving laterally from post to post well in his last stint in Lehigh, and Kolosov appeared to make the hard saves look routine. Kolosov just needed time to develop.
The Flyers were doomed for the playoffs once again for a fifth consecutive season. Obviously, they need to improve the Goaltending situation, in order to establish some sort of relevancy again. For the past two seasons the Goaltending has let the team down big time when it needed it the most. Now was that the only problem this past season? Heck no, there were more wrongs than rights, but it still was a let down.
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