Top Philadelphia Flyers goalie prospect Egor Zavragin has yet to play for his KHL club, SKA St. Petersburg, in the early goings of the 2025-26 season.
Zavragin, 20, was on SKA’s bench as an unused substitute in Monday’s 3-2 loss to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, where 22-year-old Artemi Pleshkov drew the start and stopped 28 of 31 shots.
Zavragin’s place on the bench as the backup goalkeeper was actually a promotion for him, too.
On Saturday, Sergei Ivanov started for SKA against the Shanghai Dragons, but was yanked after 35:18 after allowing six goals on 20 shots. Pleshkov replaced Ivanov and stopped all five shots he faced in the final 23:37 of the 7-4 loss.
This is all to say that, without Zavragin on the ice, SKA is disappointingly 0-2-0 on the season.
The KHL outfit already replaced Roman Rotenberg, Matvei Michkov’s former coach, with NHL legend Igor Larionov moving behind the bench, and the roster features players like Joseph Blandisi (already suspended), former Flyers forward Mikhail Vorobyov, veteran center and former NHLer Andrei Loktionov, Nikolay Goldobin, Rocco Grimaldi, Trevor Murphy, and St. Louis Blues prospect Matvei Korotky.
KHL Forward Supports Flyers’ Aleksei Kolosov
Ahead of what will be his first full training camp with the Philadelphia Flyers, top goalie prospect Aleksei Kolosov continues to draw support from his peers from all over the globe.
If Larionov’s poor luck continues, he may be forced to turn to Zavragin, which would be something certainly celebrated by the Flyers across the pond here in Philadelphia.
Flyers fans may recall how the 20-year-old former third-round pick dominated in the KHL last season under heavy expectations, going 20-14-3 across 43 games between SKA and HC Sochi and ripping off a 2.50 GAA, a .917 save percentage, and four shutouts.
In the Gagarin Cup playoffs, Zavragin was 1-2-0 with a 3.22 GAA and .913 save percentage across four games.
Plus, it certainly doesn’t help Zavragin’s case that only three of SKA’s top 10 point-getters from last season remain.
Ivan Demidov, Alexander Nikishin, Arseniy Gritsyuk, Zakhar Bardakov, Tony DeAngelo, and, potentially, Evgeny Kuznetsov, have all left for the NHL, while only Sergei Plotnikov, Marat Khairullin, and Valentin Zykov remain.
If things don’t continue to trend upwards for Zavragin, perhaps the Flyers will have other ideas on how to best develop their top goalie prospect that don’t involve the KHL.
Read the full article here