Social media went wild concerning the Flyers over the past few days related to some “news” about goalie prospect Alexei Kolosov.

It was an interesting study in how far we’ve fallen in the news dissemination department, where the majority of the public doesn’t know if what they are consuming is true or not, but either way, they are going to react to it as if it’s gospel.

Let me take you through this craziness, and then in the end, provide some actual reporting to clear up this mess.

It all started with an interesting thread on X from Tony Androckitis, a reporter for Inside AHL Hockey.


He went on to add one more comment, that read “Not to mention you watch Ivan Fedotov go straight to the NHL with #Flyers & get a big contract extension shortly after the season ends.“

Now, Tony’s been covering the AHL for quite some time. He’s done a lot of good reporting for that league. He’s even broken some news over the years, so I have no doubt someone he trusts as a good source gave him that quote about the Flyers putting Kolosov in a hotel and him feeling isolated.


However – just putting it out like that without a story, without more context than an X thread, while it’s not faulty reporting, it does leave the door wide freaking open for misinterpretation and wild speculation.

Which is exactly what happened once Philly Hockey Now got its hands on it.

I used Carchidi’s tweet, even though he didn’t write the story, because that headline has since changed. And while the original story is still intact, this additional caveat was plugged into the story between the second and third paragraph, and underneath an ad:

Editor’s Note: Philly Hockey Now can confirm that the attached report from Tony Androckitis is false.

Not sure that’s exactly accurate either, but hey, it’s 2024, accuracy is so passe.

Anyway, the original story sent fans into a tizzy about how the Flyers mistreated Kolosov. But it also ruffled Androckitis’ feathers because he felt that the Philly Hockey Now piece, written by Jonathan Bailey, took his X posts out of context.

And it created a bit of a an old-fashioned, media Twitter-beef between the two, although it was short-lived.


The esteemed (and frequent Snow the Goalie guest) Bill Meltzer was mentioned by Androckitis because he chimed in during the cacophony, with a quick post, throwing cold water on the whole thing.


Of course, once Bill speaks, people listen, and then the tide shifted slightly from anger toward the Flyers for mistreating a player to anger toward the media for putting out bad information or conflating the story.

Bailey then took to social media to take some accountability for fanning the flames.

All that is great. I appreciate what Bailey had to say. I was the same way when I was in my 20s trying to make my way in the same industry. The difference is, the industry has changed and there were fewer platforms to do what Bailey does when I was his age, so you had to go through a more rigorous path to learn how to do these things properly. You still didn’t always get it right, but it was under a very watchful editorial eye.

Nowadays, it’s the Wild West, and pretty much anyone can do or say anything with little to no oversight.

And I feel bad for Bailey that there are companies who want content who won’t just pay a living wage for it and force you to work in what is basically a pyramid scheme – you do all the work, and you only get paid per subscriber, or based on the number of times someone clicks on your story, and even then, you only get a percentage of the money, as the owner of the site reaches into your bag to get their tribute.

It’s pretty sad.

But I tell you all of this to get to the crux of the matter – that through all this half-reporting and aggregating, and media sniping at one another, and mea culpas and standing by original reporting, there was one thing that was clearly missed:

Finding out what REALLY HAPPENED.

So, I figured, I would.

I reached out to several sources with direct knowledge of the situation for insight into the how the Flyers handled Kolosov while he was here and how they are still handling it now.

Before we get into specifics of this matter, let me be clear, that professional sports teams always find temporary housing for their players until the player can establish housing on his own. The Flyers are well known throughout the sport of hockey to be among the best of the best when it comes to taking care of players and staff with these kinds of accommodations, to make transitioning to a new area easier, but it should be clearly stated that temporary housing is the norm.

By comparison, the Phillies just traded for Austin Hays and Carlos Estevez. Until they can get settled and find a place to live in the Philly area, they’re living in temporary housing – most likely a hotel.

When Kolosov came over to the Phantoms last March, the Flyers immediately offered to get him set up in the same apartment complex where most of the Phantoms were staying. However, Kolosov didn’t want to have roommates. He wanted his own space. As such, he chose the option of being in a hotel close to the rink.

He wasn’t forced there by the Flyers organization.

The Flyers told Kolosov what the plan was going to be. They had only seen tape on him, so they wanted to get him a couple of games with the Phantoms so they could see him in person, but that the rest of the time would be spent working with coaches and development staff as he learned to adjust to a more physical brand of hockey than he was used to in the KHL.

Kolosov would spend ample time working with Brady Robinson, who the Flyers hired as part of their player development team specifically to work with the slew of young goalies that are in the pipeline. Additional time would be spent as well as athletic trainers Brian Gurgesky and Joe Hurley.

The Flyers deployed their other player development guys as well to work with Kolosov on assimilation, both on and off the ice.

The notion that he would be at practice for two hours and then stuck in a hotel room with no one to talk to for the other 22 hours, is asinine. Players don’t just show up at the rink to practice and talk to the media and then go home. They actually have a full work day – whether that includes video work or working out, or getting treatment, or meeting with coaches, or the equipment guys, or whatever.

The one thing the Flyers acknowledge they didn’t have was a coach or a teammate who could speak the same language as Kolosov. In such a condensed time frame and already past the deadline, the Flyers couldn’t just add someone to the roster who could be an interpreter friend for Kolosov for that month.

So, there’s no doubt that there were some challenges with communication during his time in Allentown, but not anything that would isolate him from the team and what they were working on or trying to achieve to the point where he would retreat to a hotel room and not be involved when everyone else was.

What was also communicated to Kolosov was that the organization planned for him to be the No. 1 goalie in the AHL in 2024-25 and that they would attempt to bring in a player or two who speak Russian to add a level of comfort for him as he continued to adapt to a North American lifestyle.

As of this time, the Flyers have not added those players to the Phantoms roster, but sources said it is on their to-do list before the start of training camp.

The Flyers were surprised to learn that Kolosov felt uncomfortable in his time with the Phantoms. He never expressed it to them while he was there or even at the end of the season before he flew back to Belarus. They were only made aware of Kolosov’s feelings in recent weeks through Kolosov’s representatives.

The Flyers are in constant communication with his agents and remain optimistic that Kolosov will come to training camp, even though he did not come to development camp earlier this month.

There have been additional overseas reports that Kolosov has requested to terminate his entry level contract that he signed with the Flyers and that he has asked his KHL team – Dinamo Minsk – to assist with that. Those reports are completely inaccurate.

No such request has been made to the Flyers from Kolosov, his agents, or Dinamo Minsk.

Additionally, neither Kolosov nor his representatives have told the Flyers he doesn’t plan to report, which is why the Flyers are optimistic he will return.

There is also a thought that has gotten some legs out there that Kolosov is frustrated by the difference between how he was handled and how the Flyers handled Ivan Fedotov, who came straight to the NHL and got a new contract to boot.

(My favorite part of this ridiculously long diatribe was about the 5:50 mark when Russ inadvertently called himself useless.)

Here’s the thing –

Kolosov is 23. Fedotov is 28. Fedotov had more international playing experience. Hell, he has more life experience. He was absconded in a white van and shipped off to Siberia to serve in the Russian military, for (Saint?) Pete’s sake.

And… Fedotov was in the final year of his ELC, which had already been ported forward one year by the NHL. So, of course the Flyers were going to give him a contract and a crack at the NHL first. It doesn’t change how they feel about Kolosov.

If Kolosov arrives in camp, as expected, and plays out the year in Lehigh Valley, odds are he’ll be given a crack at winning an NHL job by 2025-26, if not sooner. Most teams have a goalie injury of some point and need more than two goalies to get through an NHL season. Kolosov would likely be the next man up.

One thing the Flyers have zero interest in doing, according to sources, is loaning Kolosov back to the KHL. They gave him a contract. He took the signing bonus. Now, it’s time for him to hold up his end of the bargain and play for the money he’s been paid.

When he arrives at camp, he’ll find several players he can become comfortable with – guys like Fedotov, Matvei Michkov, and Egor Zamula. There will likely be the aforementioned additions for the Phantoms also.

There’s no doubt that having a full season with a team will be a lot different than being thrown into the fire in the final couple weeks of the season and the first two-plus weeks of the postseason.

The Flyers are willing to go to great lengths to make sure Kolosov – or any player for that matter – has the resources they need to be at their best and able to perform. However, a team can only take a player so far. The player needs to go the rest of the distance to make it all work.

In short, the Flyers didn’t abandon one of the top goalie prospects. They didn’t dismiss his difficulty to adapt to a new place and a new language. Remember who the General Manager is. Danny Briere couldn’t speak English when he first came to an NHL organization. And while going from Quebec to Phoenix is a little different than Belarus to Allentown, the language barrier was still just as difficult.

So, it should be known that if anyone gets what Kolosov was experiencing, it’s certainly Briere.

And trying to report it any other way, is just not providing the full story.