Briere defends Flyers amid Kolosov absence, says time for prospect to ‘step up'

VOORHEES, N.J. — Danny Briere looked as perplexed as anyone, even slightly peeved as the questions piled up.

The Flyers open 2024 training camp Thursday and potential franchise cornerstone Matvei Michkov has arrived two years ahead of schedule. The team contended for the playoffs last season all the way up to Game 82 without losing sight of its rebuild.

But, understandably and inevitably, the opening topic of discussion Tuesday revolved around a player who wasn't here.

Alexei Kolosov, one of the Flyers' best goaltending prospects, didn't attend rookie camp and won't be in main camp, either. A puzzling situation that has brewed since May essentially came to a head at Briere's press conference.

And the general manager was blunt. Tough to blame him.

"All we know is he's under contract with us," Briere said. "The way we see it, if he wants to play hockey, he has to respect his contract."

The 2021 third-round pick from Belarus signed his three-year entry-level contract in July 2023. He played last season on loan in the KHL, Russia's top pro league, with his club Dinamo Minsk. After appearing in 53 games, including the playoffs, Kolosov joined the Flyers' AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley at the start of April.

The Flyers felt the 22-year-old spending a month-plus with the Phantoms would help his full-time transition to North America in 2024-25. But apparently the plan didn't go as planned.

"For us, we have no interest in loaning him back, we want him to develop here," Briere said. "There's a great opportunity in front for our goalies right now. We have young goalies in net, we have Cal Petersen that's fighting for a spot, as well. We just thought it would be a great opportunity for him at this time. It's too bad that he's not willing to come over."

In May, five days after Lehigh Valley was knocked out of the playoffs, Belarushockey.com reported that Kolosov possibly wanted to return to the KHL for the 2024-25 season because of problems adapting to North America. At the time, the Flyers believed that he had been homesick, according to a source, but were hopeful he'd be OK come training camp. Tony Androckitis of InsideAHLHockey.com reported in July that Kolosov felt "isolated."

"To be honest, like, maybe I'm the worst coach in the world, but I make people around me comfortable," Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere said Monday. "I'm a friendly guy, you guys have known me for 15 years.

"It was a tough spot for him, but guys asked him to go out every night for dinner, he said no."

When European players chase their NHL dreams in North America, it's a challenge. They must adjust to a different culture and language. Kolosov doesn't speak English and Lehigh Valley didn't have a player on its roster from Russia. Both the Flyers and Phantoms were in the heat of playoff races. Briere understood if Kolosov battled homesickness but the GM defended Lehigh Valley's leadership group and coaching staff.

"I have to say something about that because some of our players and coaches and development guys went above and beyond to try to help him integrate with the team," Briere said. "I feel bad for some of the leaders, Garrett Wilson especially, Louie Belpedio and I could go on and on. These guys went out of their way to try to help him fit in, they would ask him to go to dinner and stuff like that.

"I talked to some of the guys and they all said that he was fine, he was great around the rink, they liked him as a person. I just want to make that clear out there with all the rumors, there didn't seem to be any issues and I believe in the leadership of those guys. Same thing with our coaches.

"You have Jason Smith and Ian Laperriere, two of the greatest leaders who would do anything for their teammates, on the coaching staff. So when you hear things like that, you have to take it with a grain of salt a little bit."

The Flyers' goaltending picture in the present and future is far from sacrosanct. It oozes with opportunity. Kolosov was projected to open this season with the Phantoms and would have played a lot alongside Petersen. Depending on the performance and health of the Flyers' Samuel Ersson-Ivan Fedotov tandem, Kolosov had a shot at his NHL debut.

"Most teams around the league use their third goalie or fourth goalie," Briere said. "He'd be in a competition with the guys that we have to play some games this year. I think on his end, it's more about he wants to be guaranteed a spot in the NHL. If not, he prefers to stay over there. And that's not the way we see it.

"We agreed last year to loan him back for one year because he wanted to stay home. But at some point, you sign a contract, we want him here, we want him to start integrating himself into the game the way it's played here in North America, with the smaller ice, learning the language and all of that."

The Flyers seem to have a flickering hope that Kolosov might eventually change his mind and want to come back over. But this all looks precarious at best. One has to seriously wonder if this can ever be mended, if Kolosov will ever play for the Flyers.

"We do wonder at this point because he doesn't show that he wants to come," Briere said. "That was the understanding last year when he signed the contract, he asked us to loan him back for one year so he can keep developing one more year and then he would come over. And then we're here now and he's still saying the same thing. ... It's time for him to step up and respect the contract that he signed."

The Kolosov development comes eight months after the Flyers were forced to trade Cutter Gauthier in January because the 2022 fifth overall pick did not want to play for the organization.

"We're always looking at ourselves and seeing how we can do better," Briere said. "But don't forget, we're talking about two guys from the outside. When I look at the culture that we're building here on the inside, the players that are on the inside, they want to be here."

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