The Philadelphia Flyers have decided to bring back their Lehigh Valley Phantoms’ goaltender Alex Lyon for yet another season. The team recently re-signed Lyon to a one-year deal worth $700,000, but was this decision the right one?
The Flyers originally acquired this former Yale University standout star from the collegiate level back in 2016 when the team offered him a contract while he was still an NCAA undrafted free agent. At the time, this signing seemed like the Flyers could have just found their future in between the pipes. With Lyon coming off of back-to-back seasons where he averaged a 1.62 goals against average (GAA) with a .939 save percentage (SV%) in the 2014-2015 season, and then followed it up with a 1.64 GAA and a .936 SV% the following season for the Bull Dogs.
Over the course of the last four seasons within the Flyers’ organization, Lyon has not only proven to be a solid American Hockey League goaltender, but he has also become a leader in the locker room and possesses a brilliant hockey mind. But when the Big Club has come calling on him for some assistance over the years (when either one or both of their NHL netminders have been down and out because of injury) Alex just hasn’t produced! This past season, Lyon played in three games with the Flyers. In those games Alex posted a 3.55 GAA with a .890 SV%. Yikes. Even worse: In 2 games played in the 2018-2019 season when the Flyers REALLY needed him to step up the most (when both Carter Hart and Brain Elliott went down) Lyon failed miserably, posting a 5.08 GAA with a .806 SV%. With Lyon posting these horrid numbers, the team was forced to go out and try to find emergency help by any means necessary. The Flyers then resorted to signing unrestricted free agents, trading for other goalies, and brought up every goalie in their system: Mike McKenna, Calvin Pickard, Michal Neuvirth, Anthony Stolarz, and Cam Talbot all had a turn that year to suit up for the Flyers. Now entering his fifth season in the Flyers organization, you have to ask yourself just how many chances are the Flyers going to give Lyon?
Click here to shop for our latest sporting apparel, and accessories from flyersnittygritty.com
This writer thinks this signing was made out of comfortability and familiarity with Lyon. And most may think that bringing this topic up seems trivial or insignificant, but I assure you it may have a larger impact than you think! This signing blocks the development other Flyers’ goalies, like the teams promising young goaltenders Kirill Ustimenko, and Felix Sandstrom. Both are signed and have yet to have the opportunity to prove themselves at the AHL level as a starter. Now, Alex Lyon will at the least share the starts with Ustimenko again next season in the AHL, and Sandstrom will be forced to play at the ECHL again next year! That’s not the biggest problem though. It’s signing like these that affect the future signings of other talented Flyers’ prospects from even committing to the team that drafted them.
Case in point: The Flyers’ 2015 7th round pick goaltender Ivan Fedotov. Fedotov, who is now 23-years-old, intimidates the competition by towering over them at impressive 6’8. Ivan (who currently plays in the Kontinental Hockey League, (KHL)- Russia’s top professional league and arguably the 2nd best league in the world) was among the league’s leaders last season with a 2.10 GAA and a .931 SV% in 32 games played. This season Ivan’s numbers have only improved as he is averaging a 1.70 GAA with a .942 SV% in the three games he’s played so far this 2020-2021 season. In fact, Fedotov’s numbers in the KHL are even more mind-blowing than the numbers Ustimenko put up in his time in Russia, because Ivan is doing them in the KHL rather than the VHL or MHL (Russian’s minor leagues) like Kirill did. Making him, in this goaltender-turned-writer’s eyes, the Flyers’ best goaltender period in the system right now who is not named Carter Hart. Sadly, Fedotov has looked at Philadelphia’s depth in-net and has decided to re-sign in the KHL to continue to play alongside his Russian comrades until at least the end of the 2021-2022 season, because there is no place for him to play in the Flyers’ North American system.
If the Flyers continue to re-sign guys that have had their fair chance to prove themselves already and then fail to move on from them, other promising draft picks in their system will take the same route as the former-Flyers’ defensive prospect Wyatt Kalynuk did when he chose not to sign with the Flyers because of the depth already in their system on the blueline; Rather, he waited until the Flyers no longer held his rights so he could then proceed to sign with the Chicago Blackhawks- who might be able to use his services as early as next season in the NHL.
The Flyers are in a position they have not ever been in before, and that is one of having great depth in all positions throughout their system. Philadelphia now must learn when to trim the fat (so to speak) so that they don’t log jam their prospect pool with guys that are no longer progressing, and thus have room for others coming in. Doing this would ensure that the Flyers don’t potentially lose another great player in Ivan Fedotov.
I for one would have signed Fedotov instead of Lyon!