"Considerable Progress" Made On Fedotov Extension With Flyers

His long-awaited debut for the Philadelphia Flyers can only be deemed a success. Ivan Fedotov began his NHL career with a spectacular breakaway save on his first shot on goal against, then continued to play well for two+ periods for the Flyers, despite their 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders earlier this week. In fact, head coach John Tortorella called him "the only goddamn player that played in the second period."

The team is already in negotiations on a new contract with the 6-foot-7 netminder, who is a pending UFA after the season, despite only just arriving in Philly within the past week or two. But it doesn't appear it'll get that far, as hockey insider Chris Johnson tells us that the Flyers have already made "considerable progress" on an extension.

He hasn't even played a full NHL game yet... and already work is underway on what would be his second NHL contract. And that's because of the unique circumstances at play here, with him being 27 years old.

It sounds like considerable progress has been made towards an extension. It might not be something we see announced in-season here, it might come a little bit after the year. But certainly, from both sides of the equation, the Flyers and Fedotov, I think they want this to be a longer-term stint together and I do expect him to be signed long before free agency.

Fedotov has been playing in Russia since the Flyers drafted him way back in 2015. After the 2021-22 season, Philly signed him to a contract, but while working out at home in St. Petersburg, he was snapped up by Russian police and enrolled in the military to do one year's service. His one-year deal with Philly was expected to be tolled to the current 2023-24 season, but instead, after getting out of the military, he was pushed to sign a contract with CSKA Moscow for this year.

The IIHF ruled in the Flyers' favor, saying that Fedotov's contract with CSKA was illegal, and he should be Philly property. But he and the team defied the ruling, and he played most of this season in Russia anyway.

Somehow, that deal with CSKA was terminated last month, and Fedotov arrived in the City of Brotherly Love, ready to start his NHL career—which did finally happen earlier this week.

With a new Flyers contract seemingly on the horizon, Russia seems firmly in Fedotov's rearview mirror now.