No, John Tortorella didn’t throw anyone under the bus or call out a specific goaltender at the end of practice or after their preseason defeat against the Boston Bruins. However, he is slightly concerned about the state of their goaltending as the Philadelphia Flyers embark on their 2024-25 regular season in less than 2 weeks.
Carter Hart had been the stalwart in net since his debut in 2018, as evidenced by his 5 straight Opening Night starts from 2019-20 to 2023-24. With the Flyers having to part ways with their once highly-touted goaltender, Samuel Ersson and Ivan Fedotov are expected to enter the season as the 1A/1B tandem and Tortorella – like everyone else – is a little worried.
The veteran head coach isn’t doubting either of their skillsets but both Ersson and Fedotov are entering the season with very little NHL experience and there really isn’t much of a contingency plan if they fail. Alexei Kolosov has reported for training camp and the expectation is that he will be reporting to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms to start the year but with how the saga has unfolded this summer, it’s a wait-and-see approach currently.
“We have a whole new goaltending situation this year. It scares the crap out of me,” Tortorella said. “Because we don’t start with Carter, it’s Ers’ first time really being the guy. As much as I love him mentally, I don’t know how that all works out. So we can’t get ahead of ourselves here and I want to make sure you guys understand that.
“I love where the organization’s going, I think guys have improved, but we’ve got some hurdles to figure out here, especially with our goaltending because it’s a whole different landscape to start a new regular season.”
Before last season, Ersson played in just 12 contests during the 2022-23 campaign, which was split in 2 stints. With injuries ravaging the goaltending duo of Hart and Felix Sandström, Ersson was forced into making 5 starts and 2 relief appearances, where he posted a .918 SV%, 15 goals allowed in 7 games, and posted a 5-0-0 record. He also became the first Flyers goaltender to ever sweep the California three-game series.
He made a return at the end of the season where he lost both contests he played in but he ended his first season with a 6-3-0 record in 12 games, a .899 SV%, and 33 goals allowed as a whole. He suffered through a few difficult games, one of them being the 7-0 drubbing at the hands of the New Jersey Devils, which accounted for his first loss, and his first appearance, which was in relief of an injured Hart, where he allowed 5 goals on 30 shots. In between he was spectacular.
2023-24 rolled around and Ersson edged out Sandström for the backup role but endured a tough first month as he allowed 14 goals on 59 shots in 3 games for a horrid .763 SV%. He turned things around on a dime and went 12-3-2 in his next 17 games with a .930 SV%, 31 goals allowed, and 3 shutouts. Unfortunately due to Hart’s departure, Ersson was thrusted into the number one job and played in 31 of the team’s final 36 games.
He went 11-14-4 during that stretch with a .876 SV% and 87 goals allowed. The wheels completely fell off around the time the Flyers entered the most dangerous part of their schedule as he posted a 3-6-2 record, .835 SV%, and 43 goals allowed in 12 appearances, which included 4 instances where he was pulled.
He finished the season on a much better note with a 2-1-0 record and just 2 goals allowed on 62 shots but the damage had been done with the Flyers just missing out on the post-season after holding onto the Wild Card spot for nearly 5 months.
Ersson was run into the ground, there were no contingency plans in place should something happen to either Ersson or Hart, and none of the backups were able to alleviate any of the pressures or stress. Cal Petersen was 2-2-0 with a .864 SV% and a 3,90 GAA in 5 games, Sandström was 1-2-0 with a .823 SV% and 3.87 GAA, and Fedotov was 0-1-1 in 3 games with a .811 SV% and a 4.95 GAA.
Early indications from preseason show that Ersson is back to playing at the same level that saw him outplay Hart in the middle of the 2023-24 season. In his first preseason game against the New York Islanders, Ersson posted a 37-save shutout, before making 30 saves on 32 shots in their 4-1 loss on Tuesday against Boston.
Fedotov is a different case altogether because it felt like he was never going to be able to make it over the pond, let alone don the Orange and Black. After having to serve his one-year military service in the Arctic, Fedotov was expected to return to the Flyers but instead the Russian netminder signed a contract with CSKA Moscow of the KHL.
The NHL had tolled his contract to the following year so he was still under Flyers’ control, which then caused a myriad of issues between both organizations, to the point where the IIHF had to stand in. They ruled in favour of the Flyers and delivered sanctions upon CSKA Moscow and Fedotov for not obliging and continuing to play.
Then out of the clear blue sky, Fedotov’s contract was terminated by CSKA Moscow and the goaltender was on his way to North America. I don’t think the plan was to play him all that much with the season winding down, especially not right away. However, due to the Flyers goaltending issues and carousel, Fedotov was “thrown to the wolves” and looked very out of touch.
What we saw from him in the early goings was not indicative of his play in the KHL, where he posted seasons with a save percentage no lower than .914 (which was his most recent season and one year removed from military service) and had reached .931, .925, and .919 in consecutive seasons with minuscule GAAs of 2.10, 2.21, and 2.00, respectively.
Fedotov also played a major role in Russia earning a silver medal at the Winter Olympics in 2022 with a 4-2-0 performance that included a .943 SV% and a 1.61 GAA.
It’s no secret that he wasn’t the same goaltender upon his return in 2023-24 but that’s including being forcibly thrown into a van and then finding yourself in the Arctic within 24-48 hours, a year-long stint in the military, then essentially being told to sign with CSKA Moscow after not having practiced or played much hockey altogether in 2022-23.
The prevailing opinion is that Ersson was run into the ground during his rookie season and that Fedotov had no time to acclimate to his new surroundings on and off the ice. Valid reasons for both netminders but those excuses vanish once the 2024-25 season gets underway.
Fedotov signed a 2-year deal in the summer worth $3.25 million and Ersson is also under contract for the next 2 years at a cap hit of just $1.45 million. It is expected to be a tandem this year with Ersson acting as the 1A to Fedotov’s 1B, at least to start.
The latter has had an okay pre-season with 7 goals allowed on 55 shots, which included a victory over Boston where he allowed 2 goals on 27 shots. Fedotov will be a work in progress but after a stellar career in the KHL, the hope is that he can translate that game to the NHL, maybe not at the same levels as an Ilya Sorokin or Igor Shesterkin, but enough to help the Flyers stabilize a position of need.
Kolosov, on the other hand, has had just one appearance to date but a big part of that was him not reporting to training camp when it initially opened. He was practicing with his former KHL club in Minsk and wasn’t expected to make his way to Philadelphia without an NHL spot guaranteed.
Kolosov’s mind changed on a whim as well but perhaps he saw an opportunity to salvage his name and reputation and play a little bit with the Phantoms before a potential call-up or loan back to Minsk.
However, Tortorella has not been too pre-occupied with the unfolding saga as his eyes are set towards the NHL roster that will inevitably feature Ersson and Fedotov.
“I have other things to worry about than that, that’s why we have Dilly [Kim Dillabaugh],” he said. “I don’t know. I’m more concerned about Ers and Fedotov as we get later in the exhibition, to make sure they’re ready to go.”
It’s going to be an interesting season to say the least as the Flyers are still moving forward with their rebuild. Winning games and making the playoffs are of course on the table as viable options, but Tortorella wants to stick to the process and focus on what they’ve been trying to achieve since his arrival.
“I don’t look that far ahead,” Tortorella said. “I don’t. I think we have plenty of things to do as we continue to build. We are still building. I just don’t get that far ahead. It’s just hockey speak, right? ‘Yeah, we’re here to win a Stanley Cup.’ I don’t believe in that. We have so much s—- to do with our team before we even start talking about that stuff.
“Everybody thinks you need to say, ‘This is the goal.’ “That’s where you lose sight of how to build a hockey club as far as I’m concerned.”
