General manager Danny Briere spoke with John Clark about Matvei Michkov’s arrival to the Flyers.
The Alexei Kolosov situation remains in wait-and-see mode.
The Flyers' goaltending prospect recently switched his representation to Dan Milstein of Gold Star Sports Management Group, the agent confirmed to NBC Sports Philadelphia on Monday. Kolosov was previously represented by J.P. Barry of CAA Hockey.
Daria Tuboltseva first reported Milstein becoming Kolosov's agent.
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Milstein represents a number of notable NHLers from Russia, including Nikita Kucherov, Andrei Vasilevskiy and Ilya Sorokin, all of whom once played in the KHL, their country's top pro league.
Kolosov is a 22-year-old from Belarus who has played parts of the last four seasons with the KHL's Dinamo Minsk. He signed his three-year entry-level contract with the Flyers in July 2023 and played for Dinamo Minsk last season on loan. He then joined the Flyers' AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley at the start of April after playing 53 games, including the playoffs, with Dinamo Minsk. Kolosov played a couple of games for the Phantoms, who bowed out of the playoffs on May 11.
Things took an interesting turn five days later when Belarushockey.com reported that Kolosov was going to potentially return to the KHL next season because of problems adapting to North America. At the time, the Flyers were not aware of anything regarding Kolosov going back to the KHL and the belief was that he had been homesick, according to a source.
On Monday, Milstein did not have any information to disclose regarding Kolosov's status for 2024-25. With Flyers rookie camp under a month away, it's still uncertain if the 2021 third-round pick will join the club's picture in North America.
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"Nothing has been said directly to us," Flyers general manager Danny Briere said recently on the Nasty Knuckles podcast with Riley Cote and Derek Settlemyre. "We were trying to get some answers. Alexei doesn't speak English, so we can't just grab the phone and call him. It was tough to get answers from his agent or clear answers, there's always dancing around the pot. He just changed agents in the last few days, so we were just notified of that. I don't know exactly what it means."
The Athletic's Kevin Kurz reported Monday that Kolosov would prefer to play on loan again for the KHL's Dinamo Minsk.
One would think the Flyers don't love that idea given Kolosov was on loan last season and his development with the Phantoms is critical to his eventual NHL transition.
"You've just got to keep in mind, it's not easy," Briere said on the Nasty Knuckles podcast. "You come from Belarus, you come over here, you don't speak the language. Unfortunately we didn't have any other Russian-speaking players [in Lehigh Valley last year], we were late in the season. The plan with him was just to give him the chance to come over, see what it's like, to help his transition this year. That was the plan.
"It was very clear from the get-go that he was just going to play in a couple of games because we didn't want to put him in a bad situation. He had played a full season already, didn't know the coaching staff, didn't know the style. The game over here is a lot more physical, even for a goalie. So we just wanted to give him a couple of games, help his transition going into this year. That was the plan all along.
"We had people checking on him every day, guys were trying to get him. He's shy, he didn't speak a lot of English. So going into the season, we wanted to help him out and put him in the best possible position to succeed this year. We're hearing all these rumors, we haven't had a full or clear answer at this point. But if he wants to play hockey, he has to come over here. He's under contract with the Flyers, he's not allowed to play anywhere else, we want him here. So we'll see. In our mind, he has to report."
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