Photo Credits: FNG’s Rob Windfelder
The NHL draft in Las Vegas is just days away and teams are taking their final inventories looking to fill holes and map out their future. One big question for the Flyers this season will be the status of their goaltending. More specifically, will KHL star netminder Ivan Fedotov be able to successfully transition to the NHL game? At the end of last season we witnessed him getting pulled out of the frying pan and thrown into the fire. Surely not the ideal situation for making a sound assessment of his abilities. If he can build on the success he achieved in the KHL the Flyers could be in pretty good shape between the pipes with the tandem of Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of goaltending for any team, especially at the NHL level. The competition is fierce, the shooters are skilled beyond belief, and the pressure is gigantic. There’s no way around it, your netminders are going to make or break your hockey team. Last Fall the Flyers goaltending was setting a pace far beyond expectations even as the season was reaching the midway point.
The tandem of Carter Hart and Samuel Ersson was pulling the Flyers across the finish line night after night. Ersson in particular was fantastic in shoot-out situations and people were taking notice. All of that suddenly came crashing down on January 23rd as Hart was granted a leave of absence to deal with criminal charges in London Ontario. Ersson took the team on his shoulders appearing in 51 games during his first full NHL season. He did a respectable job going 23-19-7 with a .890 save percentage, 2.82 goals against average, and posting 4 shutouts.
Nights off were few and far between for the 24 year old Swedish netminder who put forth a valiant effort. Unfortunately Felix Sandstrom and Cal Petersen did not prove to be consistent stand-ins. Head coach John Tortorella was well aware that he was asking a lot of Ersson but he had no choice. The overachieving Flyers were headed towards an “almost certain” playoff birth when everything started to unravel. They fell into a tailspin down the stretch losing 8 in a row. With just weeks left in the regular season Danny Briere shocked “Flyers World” when he announced the long awaited, and very much in doubt, arrival of Russian netminder Ivan Fedotov.
Fedotov
There was a glimmer of hope around town that Fedotov might have been just what the Flyers needed to save their crumbling season. That he might sweep in against all odds and stop the bleeding. This burst of optimism proved unrealistic at best. Fedotov’s arrival was the beginning of a long term process that just so happened to coincide with a short term need. It would be equally short-sighted to judge Ivan Fedotov by his brief stint here this past Spring when he was thrown into the deep end. He’s a player with a track record of success and he could prove to be a real asset to the Flyers. But that may take a little time.
The Flyers apparently agree. They just signed Fedotov to a two year deal worth 6.5 million. The organization is hoping he can adjust to the NHL game and continue his success in North America. Fedotov arrived in Philly at a chaotic time for both himself and the Philadelphia hockey club. It was a whirlwind. He joined the team on March 29th. By March 30th he was on the bench. April 1st he was in the net.
His first NHL appearance took place during a game against the New York Islanders. An overworked Sam Ersson started the game and allowed 2 goals on 6 shots in the 1st period. Much to the surprise of just about everyone Fedotov skated out with his mask on to start the 2nd period in the Flyers net. The 6′-7″ goaltender was given a fittingly gigantic welcome by the home town crowd.
Five minutes into the period he made his first NHL save. He was left alone to face Mathew Barzal on a clean breakaway. Barzal went high glove side. Fedotov got a hand on it. The shot bounced out of his stiff new glove and he pounced on the puck to keep Bo Horvat from getting to the rebound. All in all he had a solid first showing making 19 saves in a game that the Flyers eventually lost in overtime.
Fedotov got his first official start a few nights later against the Buffalo Sabres. This outing bought the situation much more into focus. Fedotov looked more like you would expect him to look after being thrown into very unfamiliar surroundings behind a team that was experiencing a late season melt down. He looked slightly unsure of just about everything including his own skates. The Flyers outshot the Sabres 34-19 yet lost the game 4-2. In his final appearance of the season he gave up the final 4 goals in a 9-3 blowout loss in Montreal. Again, this was not an ideal situation for anyone involved.
The Hard Way
Ivan Fedotov was supposed arrive in Philly years earlier under much easier circumstances. All signs pointed towards him making it to camp for the 2022-23 season on an entry level contract. He had just come off of a wildly successful season in the KHL. Unfortunately that July while loading some gear into his hatchback outside a local ice rink in Saint Petersburg the authorities detained him. He was taken into custody, and whisked away in a huge white van that looked almost like an ambulance.
His whereabouts and future were uncertain until word came out that Fedotov had been conscripted into the Russian military. He fulfilled a mandatory year of military service before being returned to the CSKA Moscow hockey team obligated to a two year contract. After all that the IIHF eventually banned Fedotov from international competition for the next three years for violating his initial entry level contract with the Flyers. …Amazing.
Last March the CSKA Moscow team, formerly known during the Soviet era as the Red Army team, abruptly terminated his contract after one year. The Flyers organization wasted no time in finally bringing him to Philadelphia. It took forever to happen and still managed to come out of nowhere all at the same time.
How’d we get here?
The Flyers drafted Ivan Fedotov 188th overall in the 7th round of the 2015 draft. The Finnish born netminder grew up in Russia and began playing in the KHL in 2014. Fedotov is not an unproven entity. The KHL is the second most elite ice hockey league on the planet. He excelled during his time there, going 61-55-8 while posting a career .921 save percentage and a 2.22 GAA.
In 2022 his CSKA team won the Gagarin Cup Championship and Ivan received the award as the league’s best goaltender. Previous recipients of that honor include Pavel Francouz and Ilya Sorokin. That same year Fedotov was named to the 1st All Star team. He also led a low scoring Russian team to win the silver medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Fedotov has a bona fide history of success.
He’s also a fierce competitor who takes things to heart. He declined to put the silver medal around his neck after losing the gold medal game to Finland in Beijing. There were covid restrictions in place and the medals were presented on a tray for the athletes to place around their own neck. Fedotov held his medal in his hand for the duration of the ceremony. “I am an all or nothing person, and it is hard to accept defeat” he said after the game. He eventually put the medal on in the locker room when he was with his teammates.
A Closer Look
Fedotov’s playing style may be a bit more stand-up than the compact butterfly style that we have become accustomed to in the current NHL. He uses the butterfly and his legs cover the bottom of the net from post to post when he does. But he is not as quick to drop to his knees as some of his contemporaries. He likes to play the puck but may need to adjust his risk assessment a bit at the NHL level.
Over recent years the KHL has been moving to standardize the size of their ice surface moving away from the wider International style rink and closer to the dimensions used in the NHL. This should make adjusting to North American hockey less difficult than it may have been in years past. The width of the International style rink changes many things about a goaltender’s approach to the angles of the game. However the CSKA Arena has been using a smaller ice surface since before the 2020 season.
Fedotov is 27 years old. Hockey is becoming more of a young man’s game but goaltending is not necessarily a young man’s position. Experience and poise are a plus. The average age of Vezina Trophy winners all time is 28.9. We all just watched Sergei Bobrovsky hoist the Stanley Cup. “Bob” will turn 36 this September.
Getting Settled
Fedotov has remained in the area this off-season and has been training in Voorhees. He will be here throughout the summer leading up to training camp, the preseason, and hopefully a less chaotic entry into his first full NHL season. It remains to be seen but Ivan Fedotov is not the long shot some may perceive him to be based on a few games last Spring. He has already proven himself at a very high level. He just happened to arrive here in Philly under an extreme set of circumstances way beyond his control.
Extra Credit: As a Flyer Fedotov wears the number 82. During his career in the KHL he wore the number 28. Possibly that number still holds too much history for the Orange and Black to part with just yet.
