The Philadelphia Flyers took care of an interesting piece of business on Friday. The club extended goaltender Aleksei Kolosov to a one-year deal worth $850K, PuckPedia showed.
The deal is an interesting move. The Flyers have a clear-cut starter in Dan Vladar. Barring a major injury, there’s no reason to believe Vladar won’t be the number-one guy heading into training camp next season.
However, the big question mark remains in the backup role. Last season, Samuel Ersson pretty much held the #2 role. Ersson played 33 games, registering a 3.12 GAA and an .870 SV%. Even Kolosov saw some action, sporting a 4.00 GAA and an .830 SV%.
Those numbers just won’t cut it next season. The Flyers will have to do more than extend Kolosov to solve their goaltending issues.
Now, signing Kolosov is likely more of a move thinking about the AHL than the NHL. However, Ersson is an RFA this summer and will need a new contract. If the plan was to roll with Ersson and Kolosov at the AHL level, well, that wouldn’t be such a bad tandem.
But that still leaves a massive hole to fill at the NHL level. As my colleague Kevin Lagowski noted, the Flyers have various options. One of them is running it one more year with Ersson as the understudy to Vladar
That move, nevertheless, will not provide Philly with the consistent goaltending it needs to compete in the Metro Division. Since Vladar can’t play 70 games, the Flyers will need someone who can log 25 to 30 starts and not be a liability every time he gets the call.
Does Kolosov still have a path to NHL with Flyers?
A question that remains unclear is whether Kolosov still has a path to the NHL with the Flyers. Overall, Kolosov’s career numbers don’t look too encouraging. Last season, the 24-year-old appeared in 17 games, posting a 3.59 GAA and an .867 SV%. While slightly better than this year’s numbers, they were not substantially better.
As such, Kolosov seems destined to remain in the AHL until he can prove that he’s got NHL potential. But that would require the Russian netminder to put up impressive numbers.
And that’s the key issue. Kolosov’s AHL numbers are significantly better. In 38 games this season, he posted a 2.98 GAA and a .895 SV%. With how chaotic the AHL tends to be, those numbers are actually impressive.
The problem is that he hasn’t been able to translate them to success in his brief NHL appearances. The key issue to keep in mind is that Kolosov is still young. He’s only 24 and could still blossom into a solid backup netminder.
But the clock is ticking. Vladar is under contract for one more year, and Ersson needs a new deal. Unless Kolosov can somehow put it all together this season, his time in Philly could be dwindling.
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