The Belarusian goalie is back in the NHL after a bad weekend in net from Ivan Fedotov.
One of the more interesting names in the entire Philadelphia Flyers organization — literally interesting, not in a good or bad way — is back in the NHL.
Announced just hours before the puck drops Tuesday with the Flyers in Toronto facing their old friend Scott Laughton and the Maple Leafs, the team announced that they have recalled goaltender Aleksei Kolosov.
As far as we know, this is not under emergency conditions and that means the Flyers have used all four of their allotted four recalls from the AHL after the March 7 trade deadline. Forwards Olle Lycksell and Rodrigo Abols, and defenseman Emil Andrae, were all recalled right after the deadline.
We are assuming that the Flyers have two healthy goalies in Sam Ersson and Ivan Fedotov, but John Tortorella must certainly has questions about the latter after the big Russian netminder allowed nine goals on 32 shots this weekend.
With 10 games left in the season, Ersson will now presumably split the net with Kolosov while Fedotov heads to the press box.
Kolosov is 4-8-1 with a 3.45 goals-against average and .870 save percentage in 15 NHL games this season. He hasn’t been much better in the AHL, going 5-6-1 with a 3.11 GAA and .884 SV% in 12 games for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
Since being sent down earlier this month, Kolosov went 3-2-0 with 12 goals allowed on 122 shots (.901 SV%) in five starts. He allowed two goals on 24 shots in a tough-luck loss in his most recent start on Saturday against the Providence Bruins.
The Flyers have four games in seven days prior to a four-day break to begin April. We could see Kolosov get the net in one of those contests if they want to give Ersson a breather. The Flyers have one final back-to-back set on April 12 against the Islanders and 13th in Ottawa
The other big news from this is that the Flyers will not be able to call up any of their younger prospects unless there is an injury at the NHL level.
That means that guys like Nikita Grebenkin and Jett Luchanko will finish the season making a playoff push with the Phantoms if there are no injuries. But with 10 games left in the season and only 12 healthy forwards, there’s still a chance that we could see a prospect in Orange and Black before season’s end.
