We’ll pretend the Flyers never played in Montreal on Thursday night and focus instead on Ivan Fedotov’s introductory (and surprise) Friday press conference:

It was somewhat of a nothing burger of a presser because of all the sensitive geopolitical shit. What matters is that he’s eligible to play. They had to drop Felix Sandstrom from the roster, which required NHL clarification. Sandstrom is now back in the Lehigh Valley and Fedotov is on the Flyers’ roster.

“As far as the playing, you know how it works here,” Danny Briere said. “Torts is in charge of that. (Fedotov) will be here, he’ll be available, he’ll be on the ice. He’ll be with the team practicing. The coaching staff will decide if he plays or not, so we’re excited to have him here. As far as a contract extension, it’s something we’re working on. I don’t expect it to be an issue. But nothing has been done as of yet.”

That’s pretty much it. The Flyers do have a Buffalo and Columbus road/road back-to-back remaining on the schedule, so it’s possible Fedotov could debut in Ohio on April 6th, but we’ll see.

As a refresher, Fedotov was drafted by Philly with the 188th overall pick in the 2015 draft and then later signed a one-year, entry level deal ahead of the 2022-2023 season. Soon after, he was detained in his native Russia and accused of evading military service. It was near-impossible to confirm the legitimacy anything reported about Fedotov, but he did not play the 2022 season and remained under contract to CSKA Moscow. The Flyers then asked the International Ice Hockey Federation to step in and decide which contract is currently valid – the CSKA contract or NHL contract. Their stance was that because Fedotov missed the season for military service, the one-year NHL contract was never fulfilled and thus had not expired.

CSKA ultimately terminated his contract, and Fedotov remained under contract with the Flyers, so here he is. That’s the short version of a long and complicated story.