Goalie prospect Aleksei Kolosov has all the talent and experience to stay with the Philadelphia Flyers and forge a successful NHL career for himself, but will he?
That’s the golden question as rumors connecting the Belarusian to a KHL return with his hometown Dinamo Minsk rage on in the early portion of the offseason. The Flyers want Kolosov to honor the contract he signed with them, but his numbers have not been particularly great, regardless of the odd flashes of brilliance and occasional strong individual performances.
Calgary Flames sniper Yegor Sharangovich, a fellow Belarusian, has been in Kolosov’s shoes before.
Sharangovich, 26, started his NHL career with the New Jersey Devils in 2018, cutting his teeth in the AHL for two full seasons before making the jump to the big leagues.
In a recent interview with Bet News, Sharangovich offered up his own experiences as a story of perseverance and advice for the Flyers goalie.
“In Calgary I play with Kevin Rooney, with whom I began my journey in AHL and who helped me a lot there,” Sharangovich said. “Now we are joking about how my knowledge of the language has changed. He remembers how I approached him with my phone and asked me to give a ride through the translator.”
Kolosov, like Sharangovich, has a few Russians around him to help with the adaptation, the language barrier, and the social difficulties. The Flyers had Ivan Fedotov and Matvei Michkov going through the same thing, while defenseman Egor Zamula was mostly on his own in the AHL a few years prior.
The Flyers also hired decorated KHL coach Oleg Znarok as a consultant in the front office, but Sharangovich ultimately found his way with the Devils by befriending the North Americans.
“In general, I understand him. I remember that at first it was very difficult for me in America. I also did not know the language. But here the main thing is the desire to learn English, try to make contact with the guys,” Sharangovich opined. “The agent advised me not to live with Russian guys, but with Canadians and Americans, so that English is around and you have no choice in which language to contact people.
“In addition, in my first year overseas, my company was only Yegor Yakovlev. And he constantly shuttled between the NHL and the AHL. Yes, there was also [assistant coach] Sergei Brylin, with whom it was possible to talk on various topics and who helped with the translation when I had to communicate with the coaches. But still I didn’t spend as much time with him as with teammates. So, I had no choice but to learn the language with the help of team partners. A tutor was pushed on me, but it will not replace the practice of communicating with native speakers.”
On that basis, though, the former 30-goal-scorer is just using his experiences as an example, not concrete advice. Sharangovich feels Kolosov’s NHL future and Flyers career will be up to him to decide.
And with the rumors that have long circulated, there is the question of if Kolosov has the desire to make the appropriate adjustments to succeed here, regardless of his obvious talent.
“I don’t think that I have the right to advise something here. All the same, it is up to him to decide which way to go. He knows better what he wants,” Sharangovich said of Kolosov. “If he still wants to prove that Philadelphia didn’t sign him to a contract in vain, then anything is possible. I consider him an excellent goalie who showed his level in Dinamo and has every chance of gaining a foothold in the NHL.”
Kolosov became the first Belarusian goalie in history to appear in an NHL game when he made his Flyers debut on Oct. 27; he went on to play 17 games for the Flyers this season, going 5-9-1 with a 3.59 GAA and a .867 save percentage.
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