Report: Flyers goaltender Aleksei Kolosov heading back to the KHL

A report has surfaced indicating Aleksei Kolosov could be heading back to the KHL for next season.

Although the Flyers have made no announcement or confirmation, a report has surfaced stating that Aleksei Kolosov is heading back to the KHL to play with Minsk.

https://x.com/HockeyNewsHub/status/1926232734118068354

Again, this is the first report that Kolosov could be heading back to the KHL, but it’s an interesting situation to monitor. The Flyers, who own his rights, would either loan Kolosov back to the Russian club or have to terminate the remaining year on Kolosov’s contract which is valued at $925,000. Once that happened then Kolosov would be returning to the club he played four seasons for, starting in 2020-21 and concluding in 2023-24.

Kolosov signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the Flyers in July, 2023. He arrived in North America near the end of the 2023-24 season and played two games with Lehigh Valley. However, various reports indicated he wasn’t happy there, mainly due to the language barrier and the cultural differences of daily life. Kolosov arrived later than expected to the 2024-25 Flyers training camp but was part of a three-goalie rotation most of the season. The result was often not getting playing time he needed to adapt to the North American game and sometimes going weeks (if not months) between playing. Kolosov played 17 games with the Flyers in 2024-25 and a mere 12 with Lehigh Valley. He was called back to the Flyers near the end of the regular season as then head coach John Tortorella lost all faith in Ivan Fedotov as a backup to Sam Ersson. Kolosov played in the Flyers’ season finale against Buffalo, a 5-4 loss in regulation.

If the Flyers and Kolosov agree to part ways, it certainly helps a bit the log jam the Flyers have when it comes to goaltending. The Flyers are possibly looking to upgrade the position by acquiring a veteran goalie to tandem with Ersson, most likely through free agency and on a relatively frugal, short-term contract. Now that Cal Petersen’s contract is up and it’s almost a given he won’t be re-signed, the loss of those two goalies could make it easier to find spots for all parties involved. If Ersson and a veteran become the Flyers’ 2025-26 tandem, then it should be easier to give Fedotov time in Lehigh Valley, essentially burying his contract (which has a year left at $3.275 million) as they did with Petersen this past season.

Of course there is still playing time needed to go around for Carson Bjarnason, Fedotov (again if the Flyers sign a veteran) and possibly 2023 third-round pick Yegor Zavragin who played in the KHL this past season. Eetu Makiniemi (who was injured for a good portion of last season in Lehigh Valley) is a pending group 6 unrestricted free agent and is unlikely to be re-signed. So that’s possibly three goaltenders in Petersen, Kolosov and Makiniemi who were in the Phantoms picture this past season that won’t be next year.

Kolosov saw no playoff action with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms despite being sent down at the end of the Flyers’ season. The Phantoms used both Petersen and Parker Gahagen in the playoffs against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Hershey, bowing out to the latter in five games in a best-of-five.

If this is the end of the Aleksei Kolosov experiment in Philadelphia, here’s hoping that Zavragin’s stint with Philadelphia is far smoother and productive than Kolosov’s nightmarish season.