The Philadelphia Flyers just had one of their biggest victories in recent franchise history when 19-year-old Russian sensation Matvei Michkov made the journey to Philadelphia!
Despite the fact he signed his entry-level contract nearly a month ago and rumors have suggested he’s joining the Flyers for the last two or three months, fans celebrated particularly hard when he touched down in the City of Brotherly Love. Maybe it’s because he’s the lone top prospect that isn’t attempting to flee the organization.
It hasn’t been a great 2024 for the “rebuilding” Flyers, who lost top forward prospect Cutter Gauthier back in January and have seemingly scared top goalie prospect Alexei Kolosov away from North America. While both situations are individual from each other, they share some common themes as to how they arrived at their vexation.
Sections of both the fans and media spent quite a bit of time deflecting any and all blame from falling at the feet of Danny Briere and the front office, but who’s really at fault for the breakdown?
Cutter Gauthier
On January 8, 2024 the Flyers traded 2022 fifth overall pick Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Jamie Drysdale and a draft pick. The news sent a shockwave though the organization as he was expected to be a massive part of the Flyers’ future at forward.
While bits and pieces of the story have emerged, there’s still a ton of uncertainty what exactly it was that broke the camel’s back. The Flyers apparently knew well before the 2023 draft that Gauthier did not intend on signing with the club and, despite repeated attempts by the front office to change his mind, the player did not alter his stance and the Flyers had no choice but to trade him.
The Cutter Gauthier mishap ended up being quite the media circus, with team-paid employees quick to throw former Flyer Kevin Hayes under the bus. It was always an illogical blame game that Gauthier was making a massive career decision based on the word of a random guy who went to the same college 10 years earlier, but it was an easy scapegoat to avoid throwing blame on Briere as Hayes was a recently traded away player that fans were unhappy with.
The long-running theory that keeps a foot in reality was that Cutter Gauthier wanted to join the organization after his rookie collegiate season and for whatever reason, whether financial or just general incompetence, Danny Briere and the Flyers said no. The denial was enough for Gauthier to take his ball and go home.
Was he unreasonably short tempered with the Flyers? The answer is probably yes. But if Briere just signed him to his ELC, which there’s virtually no good reason they wouldn’t’ve, he’d probably be here today.
Though all can be forgiven and swept under the rug when it’s just Cutter Gauthier. It’s rare, but not entirely uncommon for USNTDP and/or collegiate athletes to not sign with the team that drafted them, for whatever reason they choose. Maybe it was just a miss.
One can be overlooked. Two is a pattern.
Alexei Kolosov
Then-21-year-old Alexei Kolosov signed his entry-level contract with the Flyers on July 8, 2023 and made it known that he would make the jump to North America the following year. He ended up making it over early and in time to dress for two AHL games to close out the 2023-24 season and served as the backup during the Phantoms’ playoff run.
Rumors had broke earlier in the offseason that he was homesick and was considering not returning to North America in 2024-25. That story came and went and was more or less forgotten until development camp rolled around in early July and Kolosov was noticeably absent. It then came out that he was practicing with Dinamo Minsk, his KHL team, after “missing a flight” to the Flyers’ development camp all while supposedly asking for the assist of his former team to get him out of his NHL contract.
Speculation has run rampant in the few weeks since and there hasn’t been any clarity from the Flyers in this scenario yet. He’s still under NHL contract and theoretically expected to be in North America when the season starts. Briere stated it was a visa problem that kept him away from development camp and that he was “tired” and needed a break from hockey. Interestingly, that is the same excuse that was given to Gauthier last summer for his dev camp absence.
There are two different theories that hold water when it comes to Kolosov. The simple one being that he was genuinely homesick and was struggling to adapt to a new country. Maybe it’s just that one in a million chance and happened to align shortly after the Gauthier saga. Though he was only in North America for about a month and was fully aware that the move was a necessary part of playing in the NHL nearly a year prior when he signed his ELC. It seems unlikely he would throw in the towel that quickly unprovoked.
But there’s another scenario here that could explain the change of heart, and that’s that Kolosov expected to show up to North America and make the NHL out of the gate. But then Fedotov made a surprise debut and signed a two-year extension and pushed Kolosov down the depth chart. The organization didn’t buy out Cal Petersen and all of a sudden Kolosov is, at best, the third man in the organization, maybe the fourth based on the ice time in the AHL playoffs.
Both Ersson and Fedotov are signed through 2026, so baring an injury, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out an NHL run for Kolosov isn’t in the cards in the near future.
The story that they locked Kolosov in a hotel room in Allentown and fed him through a slot in the door, only getting out for three hours a day to sit on the bench and watch Cal Petersen attempt to play the position of goaltender, like an inmate and his yard time was a ridiculous reach and is, quite frankly, sensationalized bullshit.
But interestingly, we’ve since seen the Flyers front office roll out the red carpet for the arrival of Matvei Michkov. The 19-year-old Russian who doesn’t fluently speak the language moving to a foreign country has been stapled to the side of Danny Briere and Keith Jones as they accommodate his every need for a smooth, peaceful transition to North America.
Even if the Kolosov rumors are largely exaggerated, they did loan him to the Phantoms shortly after his arrival in North America after some visa issues and may not have been nearly welcoming or helpful enough in his transition leaving him feeling alone and changing his mind about his NHL aspirations. Why wasn’t the same respect shown to Kolosov that they’re dishing out to Michkov?
Is Briere at fault?
Is Danny Briere at fault for either of these prospect’s unhappiness? The answer, at its core, is yes. He’s still the general manager of the organization and the day-to-day ongoings, putting out these fires, communication and accommodations are still is a critical part of Briere’s job.
Is it possible they just so happened to stumble upon two disgruntled prospects, completely out of control of the organization, at the same time? It’d certainly align with the Flyers’ luck.
There is a potential common theme linking Kolosov and Gauthier, and this is the expectation of the roles they were expected to play with the team. Kolosov probably wanted an NHL gig immediately and didn’t get it. Though even if Fedotov didn’t show up it’s still highly unlikely he would’ve made the NHL without at least a small stint with the Phantoms. And one popular Gauthier theory is that he wanted assurances he was going to stay at the NHL level and not get demoted if he signed his ELC, a concept which was then rejected by the Flyers because they can’t control John Tortorella’s venom if Gauthier was to struggle out of the gate.
But even in the case that both players were prima-donnas, Gauthier would’ve been a voluntary mistake that could’ve been avoided because there’s no good reason why the organization wouldn’t have signed him to his ELC if he was (at some point) willing to join the team, whereas Kolosov just got unlucky with the numbers game after Fedotov’s arrival.
This isn’t even the first time prospect unhappiness was a talking point under Briere. The entire storyline of the early 2023-24 season for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms was a group of unhappy prospects that were exiled from the NHL roster. Wade Allison, Ronnie Attard, Tanner Laczynski, Emil Andrae, Elliot Desnoyers and Adam Ginning were among the names that didn’t take their demotions great. So much so that Ginning threatened to go back to Europe and Allison was ultimately traded.
Gauthier is gone, but Kolosov is still under NHL contract and is expected to be in Pennsylvania on opening night of the 2024-25 season. But if he just refuses to get on a plane, there’s not exactly much the Flyers can do about it. We’ll have to wait until September rolls around and training camp starts before a definitive answer about Kolosov’s future is known.
The reception to Danny Briere has been all over the chart. Some paint him as the greatest general manager that ever lived despite the current evidence to the contrary, while some are already growing skeptical of his ability to truly build the team back into a contender. It may be too early to make the call one way or the other, but promising a rebuild then fumbling two of the top prospects in the organization should not be taken as lightly as it has been.
There have been fans and media members alike that have managed to blame everyone else except Danny Briere for these failings. Which is funny, because if it was Chuck Fletcher who was responsible for the prospect exile, it certainly wouldn’t be met with excuses and indifference from the same people.
The mishandling and baffling decision making at the NHL level has impacts. Whether it be players the caliber of Gauthier and Kolosov or even just guys like Ginning and Attard, there shouldn’t be this much unhappiness from the prospects, especially during a supposed rebuild.
In a sense, it’s a good thing that they’ve showboated Matvei Michkov. Briere and Jones attached to the hip taking him around for photo ops and sparing no expense for tutors, translators and housing. It’s great they didn’t screw this one up. And while he may be the most valuable of the bunch, the complete disregard to accommodate every other prospect (in a rebuild) is a disaster and history won’t look back on this era fondly even if the rampant excuses are attempting to justify it now.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: IIHF / hockeydb.com / nhl.com
brotherlypuck.com 