{"id":143554,"date":"2025-09-14T15:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143554\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T15:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T15:22:08","slug":"flyers-trade-ivan-fedotov-to-blue-jackets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/143554\/","title":{"rendered":"Flyers Trade Ivan Fedotov To Blue Jackets"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Blue Jackets announced they\u2019ve acquired goaltender\u00a0Ivan Fedotov<\/a>\u00a0from the Flyers in exchange for their sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft. No salary is retained in the deal, according to The Athletic\u2019s Kevin Kurz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Columbus will acquire Fedotov after his first NHL season came in well below expectations. The 28-year-old had a long road to NHL minutes \u2013 including a years-long contract saga that involved mandatory military service in Russia and IIHF sanctions imposed on him<\/a> over conflicting contracts with Philadelphia and CSKA Moscow \u2013 but finally arrived in North America in April 2024. He made his first three NHL appearances for the Flyers before signing<\/a> a two-year extension with a $3.275MM cap hit. That theoretically locked in their goaltending tandem with Samuel Ersson<\/a>\u00a0also in the picture through at least this upcoming season.<\/p>\n

Yet Fedotov, a former KHL Goalie of the Year who was viewed as potentially one of the next wave of high-end Russian netminders, barely held onto an NHL job. The military service that caused him to miss the 2022-23 season entirely was a significant statistical turning point for the 6\u20197\u2033, 214-lb goalie. He made 26 relief appearances last year, logging a .880 SV% and 3.15 GAA with a 6-13-4 record. His 33.3% quality start rate was quite subpar, especially considering he posted a save percentage below .850 in 10 of his 24 starts. With an expected GAA of 2.58, Fedotov also received the most manageable defensive workload of the Flyers\u2019 three goalies, according to MoneyPuck<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Columbus was looking for an insurance option if starter Elvis Merzlikins<\/a>\u2019 struggles continue and youngster\u00a0Jet Greaves<\/a>\u2019 first chance at a full-time NHL role doesn\u2019t pan out. Fedotov is far from a sure thing either, but they\u2019re betting on his overseas track record as evidence of a potential bounce-back. He boasts a .921 SV% and 2.22 GAA with 10 shutouts in 133 career KHL games and had a 2021-22 season for the record books. He led CSKA to a Gagarin Cup championship with a staggering .937 SV% and 1.85 GAA in 22 postseason games. He was named the league\u2019s best netminder and a First Team All-Star.<\/p>\n

The Jackets, who PuckPedia<\/a> projects to have over $15.5MM in cap space, will have no problem taking on Fedotov\u2019s full salary for a year before he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer. If he doesn\u2019t make the team over Greaves and Merzlikins, his cap hit is high enough that he should clear waivers without issue and serve as a third-string option in AHL Cleveland. It\u2019s worth noting that Greaves is no longer waiver-exempt. It\u2019ll be an uphill battle for Fedotov to convince the Jackets to risk losing Greaves on waivers, so if he makes the team, it\u2019ll likely mean a three-goalie rotation in Columbus.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Flyers clear up a bit of a logjam. With Fedotov in the picture, they had four goalies in the mix for NHL minutes. Ersson and\u00a0Aleksei Kolosov<\/a>\u00a0were still under contract, and they also inked\u00a0Daniel Vladar<\/a> to a two-year, $6.7MM deal in free agency to challenge Ersson for the No. 1 job. In trading Fedotov, they clear out the worst-value contract of the four and, with Kolosov remaining waiver-exempt, could now return to a traditional two-goalie setup with only Ersson and Vladar on the opening night roster.<\/p>\n

Despite carrying a cap hit above $3MM, Fedotov will only cost the Blue Jackets $775K in actual dollars. His base salary in 2025-26 was only the league minimum. His other compensation came via a $2.5MM signing bonus, which the Flyers have already paid.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.<\/p>\n

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet<\/a> was first to report that Columbus was acquiring Fedotov. The Athletic\u2019s Kevin Kurz<\/a> was first to report the return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blue Jackets announced they\u2019ve acquired goaltender\u00a0Ivan Fedotov\u00a0from the Flyers in exchange for their sixth-round pick in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[755,43,76919,44,4247,752,41,39,42,40,4584],"class_list":{"0":"post-143554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-ivan-fedotov","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newsstand","13":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories","18":"tag-transactions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}