Flyers Goalie Detained in Russia For Evading Military Service

In one of the craziest stories we've seen in awhile, there's several reports out of Russia stating Philadelphia Flyers signed goaltender Ivan Fedotov has been detained in the country on Friday for evading military service.

Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman was bold enough to take the story in his 32 Thoughts blog and confirmed the Flyers are aware of the ongoing reports and just how crazy it is over there is the question.

We’re aware of the reports and are investigating the situation. We have no further comment at this time. - Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher

Friedman continued to stress the concern of the situation and had this to say on the wild reports flying out of Russia:

Obviously, there’s a ton of concern. No one can prevent Russian players from going home to visit their families, but teams were incredibly nervous about the idea well before this story broke. Several organizations (and agents) indicated Friday they are trying to find out if their Russian players/clients owe any kind of service, hoping to avoid a similar scenario. If Fedotov does owe military time, a possible compromise is he plays one more season for CSKA Moscow — the Red Army team where he spent 2021-22. But no one really knows, it’s just guessing.

With more on the story, please see the tweet below from Karl Mansson, a KHL reporter who has been following the case very closely, almost too close.

The Fedotov story in Russian media changed from "possibly a mistake" to "could face 2 years in jail for draft evasion" to "will probably not be sent to Ukraine".

All in 24h. He just left a training session in order to prepare for the NHL- season. Then arrested and in hospital. https://t.co/bEusW2Z56v
— Karl Månsson (@karl_khl) July 2, 2022