One last note on Alexei Kolosov

I feel no need to beat this topic to death. Though, I find it rather unfortunate that the topic has stretched out so far despite us only getting a palatable amount of information only yesterday.

The organization has cynically went on a media campaign with the specific purpose of exhausting its fanbase, so that there wouldn’t be any real blowback by the time actual information was yielded.

Flyers, goaltending prospect Alexei Kolosov in standoff heading into preseason camp

It’s tragic that a hockey team is better at information operations than it is at player development or acquisitions, but that’s the current state of the Flyers. A sad state of affairs, to say the very least.

To make this brief, Danny Briere has finally relented on saying what the “deal” with Kolosov is, though we’re still a tad light on details.

To summarize the information yesterday, I’ll present what we learned from Danny with an amalgamation of quotes that is comprehensive if not specific:

He would rather play another year in the KHL if he isn’t going to be guaranteed an NHL roster spot. He may have been homesick, we don’t know. We want him to come over and honor the contract he signed, and learn how the game is played over here, and learn the language.

If you’re interested in Briere’s full comments, you can view them all here:

Ridiculously, he also said that “we don’t know” if Kolosov intends to be an NHL player, but that idea contradicts his statement from a minute beforehand that he wanted to return to the KHL IF an NHL roster spot wasn’t immediately available.

I’m just going to omit that statement, which I find to be charitable, because it makes no sense.

So, that’s the long and short of the matter. But I have a question. Why are we so ardently opposed to Kolosov staying in the KHL until an NHL roster spot is available?

Are we really going to sit here and pretend that isn’t what Ivan Fedotov just did?

Ivan Fedotov remained a KHL player until the age of 25 years old. When he signed a contract initially, the plan was to start him in the NHL as part of a tandem with Carter Hart. At that time, Samuel Ersson was not thought of in nearly as high a regard as he is today.

Fedotov’s roster spot was all but guaranteed and he came over as a result. At least, he would have, had that debacle with the Russian authorities never happened.

So, how… exactly… did what’s good for the goose stop being good for the gander, here? Why, precisely, is Kolosov held to standards that Fedotov never was?

When Fedotov was released from his detainment, he proceeded to sign with CSKA Moscow in violation of his valid NHL contract. And nobody cared. The Flyers didn’t go on a media blitz declaring that Fedotov was failing to honor his contract… but he was. The IIHF agreed that he was.

Fedotov played the entire season in the KHL and then he came over to the NHL at the very end of the season. By taking his contract out of tolled status, Fedotov served that full year of an ELC contract in 2 months.

That provided him with the negotiating power of an expired contract and unrestricted free agency. Does this not sound like an utterly absurd gaming of the system yet? It should. But don’t worry, there’s more.

Using that newfound negotiating power, Fedotov negotiated a contract that I described as so brutal that it was tantamount to “Danny having to walk home in the cold after his coat and shoes were stolen.”

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

And it was all unnecessary.

Fedotov could have served the full year in 22-23. If he needed conditioning so badly, he could have played in the AHL. That’s what they’re attempting to foist upon Kolosov. Everyone is convinced that Kolosov is soft and entitled for resisting. Where was this treatment for Fedotov? Where was Danny?

Did Fedotov not have to “learn how the game is played over here?”

Did Fedotov not have to learn the language?

He didn’t have to return to the KHL while he was under valid NHL contract. It was illegal for him to do it, and he did it anyway, and the Flyers did not seek any form of retribution beyond a symbolic slap on the wrist from the IIHF.

An utterly futile and comically ridiculous gesture because Russia is not adherent to the IIHF’s whims anymore, because the IIHF kicked Russia out of international play already. What are they gonna do? Double ban them? Give me a break.

*** Editor’s note: While most of the punishments from the IIHF were ceremonial, there was a legitimately consequential portion of the punishments that extended a prohibition of international transfers for CSKA from 1 year to 3 years, which has had a meaningful impact on their standing in the KHL. (https://t.co/rEWYbNMr0y)

So, my question, now that I’ve established the premise:

Why is it so damn important that Alexei Kolosov develop in the AHL instead of the KHL? And why is it only important for him after it wasn’t important for Fedotov?

Doing what Fedotov did… contractual shenanigans aside… is not actually all that uncommon. Yes, that’s precisely what Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin did. No, they weren’t generational talents who were given a pass. Neither one of them was drafted with any special pedigree.

They stayed in the KHL until they were fully developed, at ages 24 and 25 respectively, and then came immediately to the NHL because they were fully developed.

It’s an option that plenty of Russians prefer. Every single Russian hockey player–to a man–does not have some special respect for “the North American game.”

Some goalies–such as Pyotr Kochetkov and Yaroslav Askarov–choose to come over to North America sooner. This could be for a number of reasons. They believe that being in the North American pipeline will lead to a quicker route to the NHL, and that’s important to them. To Shesterkin, the extra 3 months wasn’t all that important.

Other times, they simply don’t have a stable environment in the KHL and they’re being flown around from team to team and struggling to find playing time. So they’ll come to the AHL as a place to receive stable play.

If neither of these things are a pressing matter for Kolosov, then why is it such a problem that he simply takes the Sorokin or the Fedotov route?

Why is Danny Briere making this so damn dramatic when it doesn’t need to be?

On that, I have a potential explanation that might have actually convinced Kolosov. It goes something like this:

“Alexei. We need you on standby. In the AHL. Because here’s the truth: our 2 goalies are both unproven. Not only are you 1 injury away from the NHL, you’re a poor stretch of performances away from the NHL. You’re the next man up, kid. Play some hockey with the Phantoms. Stay warm. Stay ready. Because I’m pretty sure we’re going to need you. If we didn’t? I’d tell you to stay home. I’d tell you to develop comfortably in Belarus, and have fun with Dynamo. But if I do that? If I send you home? I can’t get you back in time when I need you. That’s it for the year.” 

I have a feeling that Danny has made that case in part, and I have no doubt that this case is–at the minimum–something that Kolosov is receptive to. But here’s the issue, just with his public statements. Danny isn’t making that case alone. He’s saying a bunch of other crap that would justifiably piss Kolosov off.

“He needs to honor his contract!”

Fedotov didn’t honor his contract, and he got a raise out of it.

“He needs to learn how the game is played over here, on the smaller ice.”

For one, the North American game is not a monolith. The AHL game is nothing like the NHL game, which everyone will agree with. Even head coaches such as John Tortorella will lament that the AHL lacks structure to such an extent that players can actually be better in the NHL than they were in the AHL with a fairly high frequency.

For two, the smaller ice? Really? Half of the KHL rinks are NHL-sized sheets of ice, and most of the remaining half are hybrid sheets which are not far from the NA ice anyway. There are only a few outliers that use the conventional European sized sheets of ice. Dynamo, as I recall, is one of the many teams who have a home rink that is North American ice.

So, he isn’t going to learn the NHL game in the AHL, and the size of the ice has nothing to do with the price of tea in China.

Not only is that diatribe semantically meaningless and based on incorrect information, it’s also insulting to Russians who are universally proud of their country.

They all accept that the NHL is the best league in the world, and they see it as the place where the best in the globe come to all show their talents to the world. They don’t see it as North American, despite that being the location of their rinks. They see it as the best hockey in the world.

They hold no similar regard for the AHL. They all find the KHL to be a superior league, which is why most of them move heaven and hearth to avoid the AHL.

So, even if you want to convince Kolosov to play in the AHL, you really shouldn’t insult his nation’s hockey by implying they don’t play “real hockey” or using outdated clichés like he needs to learn “on the smaller ice.”

“We already loaned him one year.”

Who cares? What, are you Danny Briere, too important to be asked the same favor twice in a row? Why does you doing something once make doing it a second time less legitimate?

I would love an actual answer as to why they’re taking this stand.

But here’s the truth: we won’t get one. Because Danny Briere fractured the relationship with Kolosov, and he’s probably completely incapable of reaching him. They’re hoping for a miracle, and the miracle will come from someone besides the GM speaking to him.

They bungled this negotiation by setting a horrible precedent and then promptly ignoring it when Kolosov wanted to use it to his advantage.

I understand why they might want to ignore it, but if Ivan Fedotov was worth breaking precedent for… then so is Alexei Kolosov.

In fact, here’s the truth of the matter:

As General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, Daniel Briere has the sole job of negotiating favorable terms and contracts for the hockey operations of the organization. That’s all he has to do. Win negotiations and accrue assets for hockey ops.

He failed on both fronts with this entire saga, and he wants to blame Kolosov for it.

I’m not particularly inclined to allow him to do that.

But just as I knew where this was headed back in May, I also know how this ends now that we’re in September. He’s going to trade Kolosov for a draft pick, and hope not to bungle the negotiations with the next goaltending prospect to the same degree that he did the last.

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