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Quick Hits: Zamula, RFAs, Fedotov, and more |
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Quick Hits: May 3, 2023
1) On Tuesday, the Flyers announced that impending restricted free agent defenseman Egor Zamula has be proactively re-signed to a one-year contract extension for the 2023-24 season. It's a one-way deal, meaning that the player will earn the same salary gross ($775,000) whether he plays in the NHL, the AHL, or a combination of the two. He will a restricted agent again next summer.
Zamula recently underwent shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum. He is expected to be ready for training camp. It's the same procedure that Morgan Frost underwent early in the 2021 calendar year and Tyson Foerster underwent in the fall of the same year. In the cases of Frost and Foerster, it took the equivalent of roughly half a season for the player to fully recover his game. However, Zamula is a defenseman who plays a puck-moving game, whereas Frost and Foerster are offense-oriented forwards. So, hopefully, the initial drop-off in shooting the puck won't be as significant of a factor.
Speaking of Frost, there's a narrative out there that "he only came on late in the season when the games were meaningless." The reality is that Frost led the Flyers in scoring over the final 56 games of the season -- more than half a season -- and also led the club in even strength scoring and assists in that span. This coincided with when the player started to get more ice time and more suitable linemates to the type of game he has to play to succeed. It wasn't all just late-season garbage points for him any more than was the case for Owen Tippett or any other Philadelphia player.
2) With Zamula being signed, the Flyers have the following restricted free agents: Ronnie Attard, Evan Barratt (Reading Royals forward acquired in a trade for Cooper Zech), Kieffer Bellows, Noah Cates, Morgan Frost, Olle Lycksell, Wyatte Wylie, and Cam York. Jackson Cates is an unrestricted free agent (Group 6) this summer.
It's a no-brainer that Attard, Cates, Frost and York will receive qualifying offers. It remains to be seen whether they'll sign one-year, bridge (two-year or three-year) or longer-term deals. Cates is the one I could most see being signed longer-term, while bridge deals seem more likely for Frost and York. I could see Attard going one year by accepting the QO or possibly two if it's a negotiated deal. It's also likely that Lycksell receives a qualifying offer. As with Attard, there's potentially a scenario of accepting the QO or negotiating a deal. With Lycksell in particular, I think a negotiated two-year deal with the first season at a two-way rate and the second being a one-way agreement being a plausible scenario.
Wylie fell out of favor a bit this season with Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere. He dressed in all three games of the playoff series against Charlotte but his ice time was rather limited. Wylie is a toss-up for a qualifying offer.
Bellows is also in the iffy category. It was crystal clear that head coach John Tortorella didn't see him as an NHL lineup fit. He was on waivers three times this season: once by the Islanders (the Flyers claimed him) and twice by Philadelphia (passing through unclaimed). At the same time, the Flyers notably kept him on the NHL roster as a spare forward rather than sending him to the Phantoms in the second half of the season during waiver-exemption periods.
I can't see Bellows making the opening-night NHL roster for 2023-24. It's at least possible, though, that he could get a QO, sign, be waived again at some point of training camp, and (if he clears) play for the Phantoms and be available as a depth callup. However, given his lack of a regular NHL role for the Flyers, I'd say it's more than 50-50 that he's turned loose as an unrestricted free agent.
Penn State alum and Bristol, PA native Barratt has played well in the ECHL this season for Reading (50 points in 46 regular season games, eight points so far through six playoff tilts). However, NHL contract slots are precious and the Flyers want to move in the direction of alloting spots more sparingly. Barratt, who is 24 years old and originally a third-round pick by Chicago in 2017, is a very viable candidate for an AHL contract with the Phantoms. That's the route that got NHL deals for Max Willman and Hayden Hodgson. However, it's hard to justify a QO on Barratt to keep him among the 50-contract NHL reserve list.
Willman is an unrestricted free agent this summer. Hodgson is on the second and final season of his two-way, one-way deal signed on Aug. 29, 2022. Next season, he will earn a guaranteed $800,000 whether in the NHL, AHL or split between the two.
Hodgson had an extremely disappointing 2022-23 season. He was one of the first players that Tortorella soured on (after a single NHL game). Subsequently, he fell out of favor in the AHL with Laperriere, who'd been one of the players biggest believers and advocates the previous year when his AHL deal was converted to an NHL contract and he was subsequently re-signed to his current contract.
3) The situation with goaltender Ivan Fedotov is complicated. I need to get clarification on several key points (such as can be clarified) before I report on the outlook for him. Russ Cohen passed along a report from Russia quoting the CSKA Moscow general manager as saying that the player will be discharged from military service and will sign with CSKA for multiple years. I've also seen the 26-year-old Fedotov, for NHL purposes, listed as a restricted free agent this summer. The problems:
* Information and quotes from Russia in general, including from KHL executives, have to be considered to be of dubious reliability until verified in fact. For example, Fedotov has not played any hockey in the last year, while stationed on a military base in northern Russia. However, there were reports last fall (which proved incorrect at the time) that he was imminently returning to CSKA to resume playing.
* Fedotov most definitely DID sign a one-year entry level contract with the Flyers last season. The deal was unable to be fulfilled by the player due to his forcible conscription in the military; basically to be made into an example of for dodging mandatory military service.
For NHL purposes, and through no fault of Fedotov's, I'm not sure why he would -- or should-- be granted RFA status based upon an unfulfilled contract. That is, unless a) his deal was somehow ineligible to be tolled by the Flyers for some reason within the arcane CBA, or b) it was eligible to be tolled into a rollover for 2023-24 but the Flyers elected not to do so.
* With so few verifiable facts available and so many uncertainties moving forward about NHL/KHL relations -- there's no Memorandum of Understanding anymore since the NHL canceled it following Russia's invasion and ongoing war with Ukraine. Basically, everything is on a case-by-case basis on when or if a KHL player obtains permission to leave the country to play in North America. There are no discernable rules.
Specific to Fedotov, would it be surprising in the least if his discharge from the military was contingent on him agreeing to return to CSKA -- which still, at least technically and loosely, has Russian defense ministry connections -- and not attempting again to come to North America? No, it would not be the least bit surprising.
Again, everything right now seems to be on a case-by-case basis. It's also hard to know what behind-the-scenes machinations must happen for a Russian (or Belarussian) player to made available to transfer from the KHL to a North American team. The non-interference agreement between the NHL and KHL is currently dead but good luck getting a non-permitted KHL player out of the country to come over here. With Russia banned from IIHF competitions and travel abroad by Russian nationals affected by travel limitations or outright bans (depending on the country) depending on the country involved, it's very tough to get a player of interest out of Russia and over to North America unless there's direct permission from the Russian government.
Bottom line: Just because Player A can leave for North America this offseason (or in subsequent offseason), doesn't automatically mean that Player B, who's the same age, will get the same permission. Meanwhile, if Player C gets conscripted or tied into a long-term contract, it doesn't necessarily mean that aren't ways to "convince" the right authorities to allow those commitments to altered.
That's the nature of NHL/KHL relations right now, and could be that way for years to come. Go case by case. As far as Fedotov's case is concerned, it's still as clear as mud. However, I'm not optimistic that he'll come over after all, at least for 2023-24. He'll also turn 27 in the fall and is coming off a missed season.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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