It’s hard to pinpoint how the Philadelphia Flyers are going to fare in 2024-25, especially after how well they played from October to February last year. The collapse at the end of the season coincided with the departure of Carter Hart, Samuel Ersson being overused, and the back-end losing 4 regulars in a 2-week span.
As the offseason enters the doldrums of summer, the Flyers laid low with their only major moves being the extension of Erik Johnson and the highly anticipated entry-level contract of Matvei Michkov.
There are plenty of question marks surrounding the team today, like whether or not Jamie Drysdale and Rasmus Ristolainen are going to be healthy for Opening Night, whether or not Sean Couturier can bounce back from his offseason sports hernia surgery, if Michkov can propel the disastrous power play out of the league’s basement, and many more. However, one boldened question mark that will make or break the season is whether or not Ersson and Ivan Fedotov can backstop the Flyers to success.
Ersson was formidable from October to the middle of January and his sparkling run coincidentally came to a close with the departure of Hart. Unfortunately, the rookie goaltender had to play almost every game down the stretch because the Flyers didn’t have a stable enough contingency plan in between the pipes. Both Cal Petersen and Felix Sandström were given opportunities for playing time, albeit short ones, but they both frantically crashed and burned.
Petersen’s display specifically against the Pittsburgh Penguins on the 25th of February was the kill shot. 7 goals allowed on 32 shots was one thing but it was the quality of goals that he allowed and at the most inopportune times that costed him his spot on the NHL roster. Sandström didn’t perform any better upon his arrival and finished with an atrocious .823 SV% and a 3.87 GAA across 5 games – compared to Petersen’s .864 SV% and 3.90 GAA in 5 games as well.
Then almost out of the clear blue sky, news was filtering out of Russia that CSKA Moscow were terminating Fedotov’s contract, which allowed the 6’8” goaltender to make his way to North America. His NHL debut came in relief of Ersson against the New York Islanders, where he stopped 19 of 21 shots in an overtime defeat. He was then given his first start 4 days later in Buffalo but looked out of sorts as he allowed 4 goals on 19 shots in a disappointing defeat. His final action of the season came in the 9-3 drubbing at the hands of the Montréal Canadiens, where he once again came in relief of Ersson but allowed 4 goals on 13 shots. He finished the year 0-1-1 with a .811 SV% and a 4.95 GAA in 3 games.
John Tortorella admitted after the fact that he did not want to throw him to the wolves but he had almost no choice with Ersson imploding by the game. In a 12-game stretch between the 9th of March and the 9th of April, Ersson went 3-6-2 with an .835 SV% while allowing 43 goals – he was also pulled 4 times. He wound up finishing the year on a good note with a .968 SV% in his final 3 games, including a shutout victory against the New Jersey Devils but at that point it was too little too late in respect to their post-season push.
It’s unfortunate as well because Ersson had an unbelievable run between the 3rd of November and the 18th of January, where he posted a 12-3-2 record as Hart’s backup to go along with a scintillating .930 SV% and a GAA of 1.85 with 3 shutouts. Sandwiched in between this run were his first 3 games where he allowed 14 goals on 59 shots and then a 5-game losing streak between the 20th and 27th of January where he allowed 16 goals on 92 shots and was pulled once.
He rebounded well after the All-Star break where he went 4-1-1, but that was the beginning of his downfall as he played in 26 of the final 32 games after the All-Star break. Going back a little bit further to the 18th of January, Ersson appeared in 32 of the final 38 games, which was a lot to ask for from a goaltender with 12 games of experience prior to the commencement of the 2023-24 season.
We’ve seen Ersson at his best and at his worst and while it’s hard to remain confident in a position that has yielded horrible results over the last 3 decades, if Ersson can have his workload monitored with the arrival of Fedotov, the Flyers should be in a solid position, however that’s a big “if” and it revolves around Fedotov being able to acclimate to the North American game.
In the KHL, Fedotov was sensational and generally speaking goaltenders are able to translate their game from the KHL to the NHL. Sergei Bobrovsky did so for the Flyers in 2010-11, Ilya Sorokin spent 6 seasons with CSKA Moscow, and Igor Shesterkin spent 6 years with SKA St. Petersburg before making his debut in 2019-20. In Fedotov’s case, he was thrown to the wolves almost immediately and it obviously backfired.
In 2019-20, Fedotov was given a larger role in the KHL and he ended up going 10-16-2 with a .931 SV% and a 2.10 GAA for Chelyabinsk Traktor. The following season he finished with a 14-7-3 record, a .925 SV%, and a 2.21 GAA for Traktor before a championship season with CSKA Moscow in 2021-22. He went 14-10-2 with a .919 SV% and a 2.00 G.A.A during the season and then provided fireworks in the post-season to the tune of a .937 SV% and a 1.85 GAA in 22 games to backstop CSKA to the Gagarin Cup. He also played in the Olympic Games in 2022 and posted a .943 SV% and a 1.61 GAA as he helped his team win the silver medal.
Fedotov then signed his entry-level contract with the Flyers before being detained by the army and sent to a naval base in the Arctic for the entirety of the 2022-23 season on the basis of evading his military conscription. After his one year of service was done with, a circus ensued in regards to the ownership of his playing rights. Moscow kept him despite the threat of sanctions, the Flyers appealed to the IIHF and eventually won, but CSKA Moscow held onto him despite the ruling, which made his eventual contract termination that much more puzzling.
Now with a full summer to acclimate to his new surroundings, a full training camp under his belt, and the horrors of what he had to go through between 2022-24 hopefully in the rearview mirror, Fedotov should be in line for a large role for the Flyers in 2024-25. We could see a 1A/1B type tandem like how the Boston Bruins utilized Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark or one of the goaltenders – most likely Ersson – garners a 60/40 split to start things out. Either way, barring injuries, we shouldn’t expect a gigantic or tiresome workload for Ersson or Fedotov to start the year.
Both goaltenders are signed through for the next 2 seasons at a combined cap hit of $4.73 million per season. The general hope is that the Flyers don’t have to worry about their goaltending moving forward especially with Hart no longer in the picture. Their contingency plan, should the goaltending unravel again, seems to be Petersen and potentially Alexei Kolosov, who was expected to have a much larger role this season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
It was initially reported that Kolosov was upset with his lack of playing time after he arrived to North America. The Phantoms were in a postseason push and were being backstopped by Petersen, who despite his struggles at the NHL level was a very competent AHL goaltender. There has been a lot of chatter regarding Kolosov’s status in 2024-25 – primarily from Belarusian sources – but it’s something the Flyers have squashed so far.
Goaltending remains a big “what-if” for the Flyers as we head into another season but a 1A/1B tandem with Ersson and Fedotov should bring about some confidence despite how 2023-24 ended. We know Ersson was run into the ground and was a lot better when his workload was manageable. We also know about Fedotov’s success in the KHL and how touted he was before signing his ELC. He went through a nightmarish couple of years, which probably didn’t bode well for his overall play and mental well-being but should he already have acclimated to his new surroundings, we could be in store for a surprise 2024-25 from the behemoth – and the goaltending tandem in general.
