As rumors swirl in the lead up of the NHL trade deadline, one question lingering over the Flyers has been answered.
Goaltender Aleksei Kolosov is being sent down to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League, the Flyers announced on Friday. It comes before Friday’s 3 p.m. deadline for players to be on an AHL team’s roster so that they can be sent down at any point the rest of the season. Kolosov’s move is not a paper transaction and he will start games in the net for the Phantoms.
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The 23-year-old goalie has not played since Jan. 29, when he allowed two goals on 28 shots for the Phantoms. His last NHL start was Jan. 2, in a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. He did serve as the backup to Ivan Fedotov on Saturday in the Flyers’ 2-1 shootout win against the Winnipeg Jets.
Kolosov is 4-8-1 with a 3.45 goals-against average and .870 save percentage this season for the Flyers. He has won two of his seven games for the Phantoms and has a 3.59 GAA and .874 save percentage in the AHL. The Belarusian spent the end of last season with Lehigh Valley and was 1-1-0 with a 3.03 GAA and .885 save percentage. He did not appear in any Calder Cup playoff games.
The Inquirer sat down with Flyers general manager Danny Brière on Feb. 27. When asked why Kolosov is still with the NHL club, and if it is hurting his development, Brière said, “Yeah, it’s not ideal, but I’ll leave it at that.”
Kolosov showed up late for training camp as rumors swirled that if he was sent to the AHL again — where he said he felt isolated last season — he would go back to the Kontinental Hockey League.
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He was sent to Lehigh Valley after training camp but was called up on Oct. 26 after Sam Ersson was injured and made his NHL debut the next day in a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
Kolosov’s first NHL win came in his fifth game, a 3-2 overtime win against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks on Nov. 23. At one point he supplanted Ivan Fedotov for the No. 2 spot but fell out of favor in early January. Loaned back to Lehigh Valley on Jan. 22, he was recalled on Jan. 31 but did not appear in a game after he returned to Philly.