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Some Thoughts on the Flyers’ Goaltending Situation and Trade of Ivan Fedotov, Who Struggled with the KHL-to-NHL Transition
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Carter Hart won’t be re-joining the Flyers in 2025:
Nor will Ivan Fedotov, who was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a 6th round draft pick in 2026. That’s not much. Fedotov signed a two-year extension in April of 2024 that paid him a total of 6.5 million dollars, which seemed a bit steep based on experience and a small sample size of performance. Was Fedotov being signed to that deal partially a freight fee to allow Matvei Michkov to come over two seasons earlier than expected? Perhaps.
By now we all know Ivan’s story of having to serve in the military when the Russia and Ukraine conflict began, which delayed his ability to starter with the Flyers sooner. He missed essentially a complete year of his prime before eventually making to the NHL.
Coming from the KHL to play in the NHL may not seem like a big deal to the layman. The net is the same size, and so is the puck. He needs to stop pucks. Simple right? Not so much.
In the KHL, goalies deal with very little traffic. Some of the ice surfaces are bigger Olympic sheets and shooters can be farther away. They pass more, looking for the perfect scoring chance. In the NHL, teams strategically try to take the goalie’s eyes away, limiting the ability to track pucks. They try to make him uncomfortable and confined. NHL shooters are so good they can disguise the release of the puck from different spots and still get a ton on it while being accurate at the same time. That’s why they’re the best in the world.
For a goalie trying to make his way in the league, the NHL can be very, very unforgiving. Fedotov had some bad habits that were not detrimental in lower leagues, like standing straight up to look over traffic. He had the height to do so. He was quite tall, But when he did that in the NHL, shooters beat him low. At his size, his lateral movement was not explosive and efficient, so teams would get him moving to open him up. It’s not like he can just fix those shortcomings. His development window was long gone. Fedotov did have times when he played well. But he also had too many times when a goal would be scored against him at a very importune time.
The Flyers are not retaining any of his contract, which opens 3.25 million in salary but also lessens an insurance policy. Goaltending is unique, where one day you have too many goalies and the next you are suddenly very thin. Ideally, the NHL team carries two, this season Sam Ersson and Daniel Vladar, your AHL team carries two, in this case Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason, and you have two goalies in the ECHL. The Flyers must have gotten assurances from Kolosov or his agent that he understands he needs to develop in the AHL, something he didn’t seem to think he needed a year ago. But watching his game, he was lackadaisical at times and clearly needs refining.
The last time the Flyers traded a Russian goalie to the Columbus Blue Jackets, he went on to win multiple Vezina Trophies and now two Stanley Cups. I’d bet my mortgage that Ivan Fedotov becoming the next Sergei Bobrovsky will not be the case.
The most important question surrounding all of this is simple –
Can the tandem of Ersson, who will turn 26 on October 20th, and Vladar, who just turned 28 August 20th, provide the Flyers with at least league-average goaltending? A big part of that is the environment they’re in. If the team as 5-man unit shows the ability to defend, and mitigate high danger chances, then yes they can. If not, eventually a team that doesn’t defend well will pull the goalies down with them. That’s the fact of the matter.
Jason Myrtetus is a Philadelphia-based broadcaster and host, best known for his work with the Philadelphia Flyers since 2008. He serves as a radio pregame, intermission, and postgame host and is the voice behind the Flyers Daily and Hockey & Hounds podcasts. A passionate hockey enthusiast, Myrtetus played organized hockey from age 5 to 50, starting as a goalie and later coaching youth teams. His career began in rock radio before transitioning to sports, including roles at WIP, WYSP, and 97.5 The Fanatic, where he worked as Assistant Program Director, producer, and co-host. Diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in December 2024, Myrtetus has openly shared his battle, drawing on his hockey-rooted resilience to face treatment. A father of three and husband to Angela, he remains a vital part of the Flyers’ broadcast community.