PHILADELPHIA, Pa – One would think that a franchise with the goaltending history of the Philadelphia Flyers that a team with few goaltending prospects would have pursued some of the top prospects in the most recent NHL draft but the Flyers decided for now not to pursue any.
Alexei Kolosov is all but an afterthought after a brief stint in the NHL last season and the Ivan Fedotov experiment was a failure. Samuel Ersson is proving to be nothing more than a backup goaltender. Dan Vlader has a career 3.00 goals against average as the only legit goalie on the big club. That leaves Philadelphia with only three legitimate goaltender in the Flyers farm system.
Today we look at the top goaltending in the Flyers farm system for 2024. Normally we do a top 5 list, but sadly the Flyers pipeline is a thin as it gets in the NHL.
Yegor Zavragin – The second goaltender selected by Philly in 2023, Zavragin could end up being the best of a veryu small bench. Zavragin, who has the same build as Carson Bjarnason and has scouts drooling at his potential. He played for two different teams in the KHL in Russia. His save percentage as a career low of .912 in 37 games for St. Petersburg but his SAA for Sochi was .941. Expect Zavragin to see NHL playing time sooner rather than later if the Flyers situation in net doesn’t improve soon.
Carson Bjarnason – His WHL four year career is behind him. Bjarnason will share the net with someone in the AHL but with who is anyone’s guess. Time is on his side along with a razor thin prospect pool. The 6’3” 202 Lbs. prospect will get a long look from Flyers management this coming season especially since this will be his first in a major pro league.
Alexei Kolosov – Seventeen games is all Philadelphia needed to see Kolosov isn’t close to an NHL goalie even if he thinks he is. The feeling is Kolosov won’t see the light of day in a rink in North America ever again unless something changes in his head. The KHL will definitely welcome him back. Rumor has it that Kolosov was not happy during his short time in Lehigh Valley, and Fedotov looks like he is the third string goalie with the Flyers. That leaves with only two options for him and it isn’t in Philly.
Brian Jennings covers the Philadelphia Flyers for prohockeynews.com and can be found on twitter at @Flyersfan22.
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