Goalie Ivan Fedotov has his ‘red panty night’, gets 2-year contract with Philadelphia Flyers

First up, my prayers go out to Flyers General Manager Daniel Briere. He has to walk home in the cold tonight without the benefit of his coat or his shoes. Those were surrendered in the street mugging, or–uh–contract negotiations he had with a 27 year old rookie and Alexei Kolosov’s placeholder.

Ivan Fedotov 2-Year Contract with the Philadelphia Flyers

I'm told that the exact number for Fedotov's 2 year deal is $6.5M ($3.25M AAV). https://t.co/xysAgZerbx

— Anthony Di Marco (@ADiMarco25) April 23, 2024

There are the nauseating terms of this contract. I almost don’t want to repeat them aloud. I can barely get my fingers to type the necessary characters in the proper sequence, but yes… 2 years x 3.25 million per year.

Oh, boy.

Okay, let’s start by establishing the stakes on which we’re talking. It’s 2 years. The franchise will not be collapsing because of a 2 year contract. I will not, at any point during this writing, imply that this is the case. It will have minimal, if any interference on any of the franchise’s grand plans… in the event they have any, of course.

We’re going to establish the stakes, because the first reflex from a lot of people is to mistake the absence of brutal consequences as a good or acceptable contract for a hockey team to be doling out. And this contract is neither of those things.

Ivan Fedotov is a 27 year old rookie. His most recent season with CSKA was not good when you adjust for the fact that good goalies somewhat regularly put up .930+ sort of numbers with that powerhouse franchise. In that context, a .915 is underwhelming. And his (egregiously) small sample in the NHL featured an .811 save percentage and his coach saying that driving Samuel Ersson into the dirt is a better outcome than giving him any significant time in the net.

None of what I just said means he can’t be good. That is certainly a plausible outcome. If you look at his prior seasons with CSKA, they look much more like the .930s that the good goalies usually put up with them. His play in international tournaments like the Olympics was very good, and won him a lot of favor with the North American crowd.

He certainly can be good, but there’s a sizable amount of risk to this profile.

And we paid him as if the risks simply don’t exist. I don’t really care how you slice it. That’s not good business.

The word on the street is that Fedotov demanded a certain number in order to come over from Russia.

I know the Fedotov AAV is higher than expected, but the contract was agreed upon prior to the player coming over from Russia.

I'm told that the contract had to be a certain number to get Fedotov to come to North America.

Not ideal, but understandable given the circumstances.

— Anthony Di Marco (@ADiMarco25) April 23, 2024

Now, that’s funny. See, I was told for the last two years that Fedotov was in a gulag and fearing for his life on a daily basis. When, in reality, he was so comfortable with his life over in Russia that he’s demanding egregious salaries just to leave.

Look, if he’s that comfortable in Russia, then I don’t blame him for wanting to stay home. But for the Flyers, it is absolutely an option to just give him what he wants and allow him to stay home.

We don’t need to fulfill cartoonish demands or allow ourselves to be blackmailed by a goalie who–quite frankly–isn’t likely to be an NHL caliber goaltender.

I know we talk about the jet lag and the equipment and everything else related to his limited NHL numbers, but Pyotr Kochetkov came to Carolina in a similar hurried situation. He was given new equipment, too. He had to break everything in and overcome being jet lagged in a new continent on a similar timeline. What did he do?

He put up a perfectly acceptable .902 in the NHL over 3 games, a .921 in the AHL over 15 games, and a .950 in the Calder Cup playoffs to lead the way for the Chicago Wolves and bring home that Cup.

What did Fedotov do?

He put up an .811 with a goals against average over 4 including a start against the Buffalo Sabres and Columbus Blue Jackets, then demanded the bag.

Yeah, sorry, I’m not doing that. There is no way they should have done that. He was a part of a goaltending collapse that can only be described as historically bad, and we’re supposed to hand him high-end backup money?

Hell, I used the Kochetkov comparison. He signed for $2M! By then, he already had an NHL save percentage in the area of .910! We just gave Fedotov $3.5M for his .811?

Nothing about that is acceptable. And if he really needed to be enticed that much to come over from Russia? Then he can stay there.

You can get similar or superior goaltending from some guy on a league minimum.

Just a bad deal from Danny. There’s nothing else to say.

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