Flyers Re-Sign Fedotov to Two-Year Contract

The Flyers officially announced on Tuesday that the team has signed 27-year-old goaltender Ivan Fedotov to a two-year contract extension. The deal carries a $3.25 million average annual value (AAV).

It has been an open "secret" for weeks that the Flyers and Fedotov had most of the details worked out on a two-year contract extension even by the time he arrived from Moscow to finish the 2023-24 season in the NHL with the Flyers. In fact, at his end-of-season press conference last Friday, general manager Danny Briere confirmed that the goaltending plan for 2024-25 was a tandem of Samuel Ersson and Fedotov. Highly regarded Belarusian rookie Alexei Kolosov, now with the AHL's Lehigh Valley Phantoms, will play next season in the American Hockey League. Kolosov turned 22 in January, while Fedotov will turn 28 in late November.

Fedotov appeared in three games for the Flyers late this past season. Sporting all near equipment, which he didn't even have time to break in for game use, Fedotov took reps in two practices and two morning skates.

Prior to his first full practice with the team, Fedotov made his NHL debut on April 1 in relief of Ersson in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders. Fedotov played very well in the second period and saw few pucks prior to New York's game-winning goal in overtime after Morgan Frost fumbled a Jamie Drysdale pass off the heel of his stick. Overall, Fedotov stopped 19 of 21 shots.

Fedotov made his first NHL start on April 5 in Buffalo. He had a rough outing in allowing four goals on just 19 shots. At least two of the goals were stoppable. Fedotov's final appearance of the season was in relief of Ersson during a 9-3 debacle in Montreal in which the entire Flyers team was lousy until 20 minutes of garbage time in the third period with the outcome already sealed. Fedotov allowed four goals on 13 shots over 27:18 in net.

How much usual information on Fedotov could be gleaned from his one full game and two partial games with the team? Very little.

What was clear was that Fedotov has some work to do on reading plays in the NHL game and working up his game conditioning. On the flip side, he showed he in an adept puckhandling goalie. Those things were already known but were confirmed.

The cap hit on Fedotov's new contract was steeper than many fans expected. It will be up to him to justify the deal with his play. From the Flyers' organizational point of view: 1) The team team preferred a two-year deal to a three-year arrangement, which pushed up the AAV it took to get the deal done; 2) Fedotov's cap hit is less than Carter Hart's was ($3.979 million) in 2023-24 and Ersson's raise ($1.45 million cap hit after making roughly $859,000 AAV on his now-expired entry-level deal) is modest; 3) Cal Petersen has one year left on his $5 million AAV deal, of which $1.1 million can again be excised off the cap if the Flyers once again waived the goaltender next season and send him to the Phantoms. With the likely offseason departure of Felix Sandström, Petersen would share the AHL net with Kolosov.

Will the Flyers' leap of faith in Fedotov pay off? That remains to be seen. The goalie may not have been brought over at all if not for Hart's legal issues in Canada. Hart was slated to be an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent this summer.

Fedotov, however, is nothing if not driven to succeed. He missed the entire 2022-23 season while on a remote naval base in Russia following an arrest for previously dodging military service (something which is hardly unusual for KHL players). This past season, Fedotov returned to the CSKA Moscow club (formerly Red Army) and was released from his contract after the season to join the Flyers.

Upon his arrival in North America, Fedotov immediately started doing interviews in English. His understanding of spoken English is remarkably good for someone who had little chance to practice over the years. His ability to speak English is rudimentary but passable. Even over the course of a few weeks in the U.S., it rapidly improved. By the end of next season, it would not be a surprise if he's almost fully fluent.

Even as a 19-year-old when he attended Flyers Development Camp nearly a decade again, the word on Fedotov was that he was a very bright young man and someone who clearly had a strong work ethic. In his short time in Philadelphia many years later, the intelligence and work ethic seem clear. As with other huge-framed goalies, he was something of a late-bloomer in KHL and international hockey.

Fedotov was Jason Myrtetus' guest for the first off-season edition of Flyers Daily. Watch below:

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