(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hey everybody, how you doing? - Well, that's good. Welcome to PHL Why Flyers. My name is Bill Matts. I'm your director of fun and games for the evening, joining me today. It's Philadelphia's number one hockey beat writer. It is Charlie O'Connor. What's going on today, Chuck? - Fresh off my trip to Warhees. And now I'm back. And now we're going to break down another Danny Breyer press conference. - Yet another day of a Colosov talk. - Before we get into it. - Oh yeah, I really want to point out that picture that launches the show. It is exceptional. - It's perfect. - We got for those listening on the podcast, it is basically Danny in a suit and then Colosov just like staring daggers at him. - It's really perfect. - It is so good. - Burn it comes through exceptional work, right? - Burn it comes through first, yet again, on the thumbnail. But yeah, there's a bunch of stuff. Obviously Danny Breyer's comments are going to be his press conference today. - It's going to be the majority of the show. But before we get into that, I do want to go back to yesterday, just rookie camp stuff, see if there's anything we didn't really get to, didn't touch on from the rookie series games. - This was the last day of rookie camp. - Today was the clues of rookie camp. - I did not watch much of "On Ice Things" as I was focused mostly on Danny and transcribing and working out what I want to write about that, which I'm writing right now. We're not right now, but in the minutes leading up the show, I was typing away. - Three minutes ago, yeah. - I sure was. But rookie camp did go on today and end it. So around, I guess, one-ish, we talked to Inla Perry Air to close it out. So rookie camp is over. Tomorrow is technically the first day of training camp, but it is very much off ice. Everybody shows up, everybody's there. But everybody shows up. The big thing that happens tomorrow, and the reason why I will not be going to the facility for the first time in about a week, is it's the day when NBC Sports Philadelphia takes all the videos that they use on broadcast. The ones where they're skating around the ice. - Taping their stick and looking at the camera weird, and all that stuff. - Exactly, exactly. - So yeah, I can't imagine there's a lot to do for you tomorrow. So I will be home. - That'll be nice for you, not to have the-- - You'll get a little semi-day off aside from doing the show. - Yeah, well, this is the easiest part of my day. Just talking about the flyers with Charlie, it's great. But rookie camp stuff, Sam Buto Amala, out again today. - Yes, third straight day. Do we know anything, is he gonna be on the ice on Thursday? Is this all a big ruse to get out of skating on Thursday? Like, you know what? I don't feel like, oh man, my back's tight. I don't know, I bet you Friday, I'll be good to go. - Yeah, I'd be great Friday. - Do we know anything about Sam Buto Amala? - My hamstring, it's just so tight. - Yeah, AJ Braille, man. - I don't know, I just kind of tweaked something. Can you use a few days off? Do we know anything about Sam Buto? Then he's just, he's out. - All I know is that Inla Parrier notably yesterday, when we talked to him about Sam Buto Amala, he notably said if he's ready for the first day of main camp, that did not sound great. Now, I don't think this is super serious. I don't think this is something where we're gonna find that in a week that he's out for six months. But the initial day-to-day designation they gave him, it seemed a little optimistic. - While we do not expect to find out tomorrow, oh yes, Sam Buto Amala out for six months. - This is the flyers. - It is the flyers. - You never know anything else. - This was on the mailbag show, I guess, last Thursday. It was like, there was a question. Do we have confidence in the training staff, the doctors, and they're like, I know they've made some changes and everything. And it's, listen, I will have, I mean, I guess I'll just never really have confidence in a lot of times, I think decisions need to be taken more out of players' hands, but this is hockey. But it's very much, it's like wrist-to-line, and yeah, I think he's out, sure. This is a believe it when I see it sort of thing. When guys stop just disappearing after, you know, a day-to-day designation and then they're gone for months at a time, I will then have confidence. But until then, I don't know, we'll see. - And this is, I mean, Sam, who could very well be on the ice on Thursday, but the lip area dropped that if. So we'll see. We started talking about bonk a little bit yesterday, but yeah, kind of got, went in a different direction. What did we think of all over bonk in the games? What have you seen out of him in camp? There was a breair quote today, bonk could have a look, which a lot of people have been like, why not give him the nine games? And it sounds like he's open to maybe carrying eight defenseman. In my mind, that means, yeah. Eric Johnson is seven, or he's eight, and like Ronnie Atard, who, yeah, why not, carry him? - He's no longer waverick, no longer waverick. - So he has a good camp. They're incentivized to keep him rather than risk losing him. If he has a good camp, talking about bonk though, he only played in the one. The one where he Amy played Friday, not Saturday. So we didn't get two games to look at him, just the one. I thought he was fine. I didn't think he was incredible. He didn't pop the same way that Luchenko did, for example. - Yeah. - Obviously, Mitch cough pop, because he's Mitch cough. - But I thought Luchenko popped. - Luchenko, you notice every time he was on the ice, bonk was fine. I don't remember any notably bad plays, but I don't think he exerted his authority on the game the same way that Luchenko did. I'm curious your thoughts. - No, that was like, yesterday we touched on Spencer Gill, who I might want to talk a little bit more about today. And I was like, I get why the flyers are like, oh, he's promising. It might be a little bit, he's clearly not a finished product, but there's something there where he might be more than just what we think Igor Zemul is ultimately gonna be. I'd be fine, six or seven. Like, yeah, yeah, he's an NHL player, sure. Like, Spencer Gill might be a top four defenseman, and I saw why, you know, when it was like, it wasn't great. It wasn't perfect. It was just like, there's something here. - There's a reason why Rex Spencer Gill in my top 10. He didn't make the list in the top 10, but he made my top 10. I'm quite high. - Like, Hunter McDonald was comical to me. Like, he was fine. Wasn't great defensively, like we said, but I was just really entertained that any time anyone touched a flyers line mate when he was on the ice, they then had some physical retribution to take it out on them. That was noticeable. I didn't, like, yeah, I was sitting behind him for two periods, so I like saw the back of his jersey and saw it was bonk, but that was the only time he stood out, I would say. - Yeah, I thought it was an unspectacular game, not a bad game. Just unspectacular. What I will say about bonk, this is what I've heard. I've heard that I don't think he's going to make this team. I think he would have to have a great camp to make this team. However, I've heard that, like, if there's fans obviously want the shiny new toy, another guy who I get the sense of likes the shiny new toy in this case is Jon Perderall. Like, Torts, I've heard, is more open than most in the organization of the idea of having bonk stick around for a few years. He really likes it. - Hell, he's got to be sitting there, like, I don't know, like, are we going to play him in the bumper? - Yeah, why the hell not? He's got to be sitting there, like, look at my power play. I want my friend, Rocky, to remain employed. What is Oliver Bonk going to make our power play worse? He can't possibly. He cannot be worse than 12%. - Don't show challenge me. - I'm just saying. Like, mathematically, 12%, you score more than that at five on five, getting the amount of time. So yeah, you would think, like, oh, he's got to be, he would make it better. But also, look at this defense. Yes, there's makings of a good defense here, maybe. But also, like, are any of these guys spectacular? No, Oliver Bonk might be really good. Who knows? I can see why he thinks that. I would tend to believe, though, a, wow, this dude who we didn't have pegged to make the team, makes it, starts with a standout rookie game. And, like, that's why we're like, maybe challenge. - You know what, bro? - Yeah, maybe, probably not, but maybe. But, like, Oliver Bonk, no. I didn't see that. - Yeah. - He could kill it. He could get it, and then there you go. And I don't think he has that momentum building already. - I would agree. What I will say, though, against that is, they really like him. - Okay. - And there are things about his game. Like, they really like the subtleties of Oliver Bonk's game. So they may be more impressed watching him than we were, because we were more looking for the flashy, you know, did he make plays with the pop? Did he, you know, engineer breakouts very well? Was he the center of the action? What they like about Bonk Moore is the subtleties of his game. They like all the little things he does. And maybe they noticed a lot of the little things that they think he did well, possibly. I'm just saying that, like, I equate their view, based on the people I've talked to in the organization, I equate their view of Oliver Bonk to be similar to what their view a couple of years ago was of Tyson Forrester. And we had this conversation on this show a couple times, or on BSH, that I always said, the flyers are much higher on Tyson Forrester than I am. I see an NHL player. I talk to people in the organization, like when I say, you guys don't have any high-end players, and they'll be like, what we got Tyson Forrester? And I'm just like, high-end, really? Well, last year, he looked like he could, so maybe they're right on both, too. Like, and that's, they have acknowledged, like, oh, yeah, Bonk's scoring number's cool, but that's not why we drafted him. It's other stuff. And if it translates, then we have, like, a first pair of defense men, but it's other stuff that we like about him. And Tyson Forrester, it looks like they were right. Like, yeah, you drafted him at 20. Yeah, it was at 20, 21, somewhere in there in the 20s. I think it was 20. Really 20s. Yeah, whatever it was. And it's like, all right, we think, though, he's a top half of the first round guy. We think he might be a top 10 guy, and we got lucky. 20 goals is a rookie. The advanced metrics were freaking amazing. Yeah, like, he's like, oh, he's like the best defensive forward in hockey. You know? What a fun game. Yeah, and like, he's got five on some lists. Like, he was really freaking good. So, maybe they are good at earthing these guys later than and seeing the subtleties in their game. Maybe that's all of our minds shall say. I would agree with you. I, though, I do not think he's going to make the scene out of camp, nor get the nine game audition, but given how much they love him, that's the main reason why I can't rule it out completely. And we'll see about Risto. Allegedly healthy, but again, believe it when I say it. I don't think that's a great shot defenseman right there. Anyone else from rookie camp before we move on to some Danny stuff that you wanted to touch on? Not really, you know? I would say, Mitch Cobb popped every day. We're going to talk Mitch Cobb next. Yes. So, let's do that. It's mandated. We have to talk. Let's talk to Matt Vay. Mandatory Matt Vay. Dessert Matt Vay. The Danny quotes on Mitch Cobb today. I just want to know. They're clearly trying to temper expectations because they don't want him to go goalless to the first four games of the season. It's like, I stayed up till 10 o'clock and he didn't score. He's a bust. Like, they don't want people screaming that. Do you believe Danny Briere when he says my expectations are actually pretty low? Like, no, not even a little bit. You don't go to the airport and carry the dude's equipment if you're like, yeah, he's going to be all right. But like, yeah, it's going to be a tough first year. I realize, do they expect him to win the heart trophy? No, but they can't possibly think this. They ran up to the podium to draft him at seven. They were trying to trade up to get him at five. They think this dude is a freaking superstar. Yeah. Is he a superstar media? We've had this conversation. I don't want to continue having this hypothetical conversation that we both agree on. But like, they think he's really freaking good and he's probably going to be in colder consideration. Right? Yeah, I think so. Danny is obviously trying to-- look, it's always better to have, like, in terms of managing expectations, you know, have them lower. So then you exceed them and then everybody's happy rather than have them sky high. And then if he doesn't quite meet them, but it's still really good, you have crazy people on Twitter saying he's a boss. Like, they want to have this. So they want to do their best to position it. So he exceeds expectations rather than fails to meet them. And by trying to set the expectations as low as they possibly can, they're trying to kind of put their finger on the scale a little bit. They are very excited about my big bitch golf. They think he's going to do quite well as a rookie. They do know that it's hard moving to a new country. It's hard learning a new language. All the stuff he's doing, it's difficult. But I don't think they're that worried about the hockey. I think they know the very least is going to be pretty good. And that was, like, his competitiveness, his willingness to get better, all of that, I think is going to ingratiate him to the coach, as we've said. But Mitch Golf, our third attempt, Breair said today, there's going to be some fireworks like there are with basically every player John has ever coached. They know how it goes. They know how it's going to go. We're all just passengers on the John Tortorale experience. But, like, he said, towards his goal is to make Matt Vay the best player he possibly can be. And I think we sometimes gloss over that towards, like, yeah, he's emotional, and sometimes he gets caught up in the moment, and then he has to come back like he did with Sandstrom and be like, listen, my bad. That wasn't what I was trying to do. But overall, there is a method to the madness. Like we said with Morgan Frost last year. Yeah, he might just not like the way he plays. He might just not be the biggest Morgan Frost fan. But he is pushing buttons in order to get what he wants out of Morgan Frost. And when he confronted him, he finally got what he wanted out of Morgan Frost. Show me that fire. Show me you want it this bad. He pushes buttons. And that is his coaching style. It is purposeful. And Danny is acknowledging that. Yeah, he's going to push his buttons because that's what he does. And Matt Vay is really competitive, and they might get in screaming matches on the bench, which I am very much looking forward to seeing. Two dudes yelling at each other in different languages. Really hope we have Mike's close enough to catch these arguments. But they seem prepared for, yeah, something's going to happen, but it's all part of the development plan for Matt Vay-Mitchkov. It's part of the development plan, to be sure, because that's why they're excited about him playing under torts. Some people are concerned about it. Part of me is a little concerned about it. I'm not gonna lie, but their thing is, this is why John Torterrell is the head coach. Yeah. Maybe if he had to wait three years to come over, maybe torts will have already retired. He wasn't going to get this opportunity. But the whole reason why John Torterrell is still the head coach, why he survived, what essentially was a complete organizational turnover, is because they believe that John Torterrell is a good developer of young players, he's a good developer of young talent. Not everyone agrees with that. But the flyers very much believe that John Torterrell develops players well, and they are excited to see him develop Matt Vay-Mitchkov well. Now, is that ultimately how it's gonna play out? I don't know, but they believe that is how it's gonna play out. Who's to say? Who's to say? I honestly, while there might be some exceptions, like track record pretty day, it's like, "Oh, well look at the line, the PLD." It's like, yeah, and look at how these guys' careers went. Like, did he maybe treat them fairly unfair? I don't know. They don't seem to be, like, the best players. They don't seem to have... It's a fair ball. Look at what they did afterward. It's like, yeah, they're getting their own, their last opportunities, you know? I think he's good at bringing out the best and exposing the character of a guy. And maybe we don't wanna see some, like, the broken eggs to make the armor. And it's like, "Oh, well." You know, he did in this situation. It's like, yeah, but it works 90% of the time. And then look at the broken eggs. Ultimately, maybe we just found out sooner than we wanted to, that that guy wasn't gonna do it. And that's what he's here for. And I actually agree with the flyers. Like, I've said, I don't think I want him as the coach when they are pursuing the Stanley Cup. But for right now, to make that list of has it, doesn't have it, I think he's got an ability to figure that out. - He is the designated arbiter of who's got that dog in them. - Exactly. And I really do think Mape Mishkop has that dog. - He 100% from all reports. Like, it will be a shock if it's like, yeah, man, he just got here and didn't care that much. Like, he is going to work his ass off by all accounts. We have some more stuff coming up from Danny Breers, press conference and all the quotes and everything, cul-a-sov situation. But first, this is a great one. - Okay. - Because we're talking about chilling. - That's right. We are chilling with Coors Light. 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TrueMark Financial is federally insured by the NCOA and is an equal opportunity lender. For more information visit truemark.com/phly. All right. - Is it call us off time? - Yeah, so the flyers, training camp, schedule, and rosters put out today. Six goalies listed, four signed to contracts, one on an ATO, one on a PTO, a goaltender signed to a contract, not listed Alexi Colosov. He ain't coming, I ain't gonna be there. - Yeah, definitely not coming. - Yeah, so we have Bjornison, Ersen, Fedotov, Peterson, all signed and fly, are all signed and on the roster. Sam Hillabran is on an ATO. - He's, we was a rookie camp, he was the other goalie, right? - Yeah, he played the second and third on Saturday in the rookie game. And E2, Mack and the Emmy is on a professional tryout. Maybe Breair is just doing a good job of positioning and going, "Oh, yeah, man, he wants an NHL job." And he hasn't earned it, so. He ain't coming. Is that what it just sounded like? He wants a spot in the NHL. There seemed to be leaning away from, "Oh, he didn't like Allentown, he didn't have any friends on the team." And it's like, yeah, he wants to play in the NHL and we don't think he's ready for that yet, so too bad. - Well, so yes and no. So it was very noteworthy, I thought, that this is the first time that Breair and the Flyers, and they have been in contact with Colosov and his camp over the last few weeks, to be sure. This is the first time they gave something remotely resembling an actual reason beyond just what we don't know. He straight dating Breair, straight upset today. I'm guessing this is coming straight from the Colosov camp, is he wants to be in the NHL, we don't think he's ready, we want him to go to the NHL. So from one stance, yes, that is true. However, I do think the Allentown stuff is still part of this story, because, I think it was Kevin Kurz asked Breair today, if you could go back and change anything about the situation, would you? Basically, what do you think maybe you guys did wrong in this? And Breair said, if we could have had a Russian player there for him during those six weeks, maybe that would have helped, maybe he basically said, look, it's not easy, I've made this point on the show, the thing with Russians is that they, generally speaking, would rather play in Russia, rather than be a career AHL. Yeah, it's like, well, yeah, if they get sent down or whatever, they'll do it, but they're not gonna sign an AHL contract rather than go play in the KHL back at home. So it's hard to find Russian speakers to be on your AHL team, to just be Colosov's buddy, but Breair's like, look, maybe we could have done that. So I think that that was probably part of it. It might be both, it might be, hey, if he had showed up and was happy and out and down, maybe he'd go and he'd be like, yeah, I'll stay down there for a year. But maybe he showed up, wasn't happy, and now he's like, well, I don't like it there. I'd come over if I'm gonna be in the NHL, but if I'm not gonna be, I don't wanna come over 'cause I didn't like it there. Yeah. So it's probably, I think it's probably a little bit of both. What, I always try to see it from his perspective, but what bothers me about this is like, yeah, he is kind of blocked this year. If he had as good of a chance as at least Fedotov, if not both guys, to be in the NHL in 2025, 26, if he had a great showing in Allentown, or if Fedotov just wasn't that good. I know that they gave Fedotov this contract. It's like, wow, it's a two-year deal. And look at the money he's making, considerably more than like Eerson, who the GM just said, Eerson's the number one. Like, we hope that Fedotov basically does what Eerson did in those like November, December when it was, oh man, maybe we should split the starts here. Like, hopefully he pushes, but going into the year, Eerson is the number one. Yes. That said with Fedotov, like, yeah, they gave him the contract. He's also, he's not waiver exempt, but it's basically waiver protection if he sucks. And I think they're gonna ride him this year, and I think they would have just to find out. Yeah. But you're right. If he sucks. If he sinks, nobody's claiming that contract. Yeah, you put him on waivers, and it's like, well, why would we want to pay over $3 million for a goalie who's 29 and stinks? Like, or at least needs AHL time to figure it out. Right. Like, a year from now, Colossev would have been in a better situation than when he signed his ELC, because there's, there was at least one goalie spot taken. Like, Carter Hart, when he signed that ELC, he was the number one goalie, and was going to remain the number one goalie, barring what happened. There could be two goalie spots in the NHL opened a year from today. And if you're unwilling to stick it out in the AHL for a year, I actually kind of side with the flyers on this one. Do you really? I, the cutter situation will get to, like, the comparison here in a bit. But, like, the cutter situation, I believe, yeah. Maybe he's an A-hole, and it was never going to work. But they probably could have figured something out to handle it better, and we could still have cutter Goce in this organization. It's probably 50-50. Feel like this is on Colossev, man. Like, do your job. Show up the work and earn it, you know? Yeah, are you blocked a little right now? Sure. Also, the flyers haven't used less than three goalies ever. As I need to eat, like, and brew it, you are going to play at some point. We have no idea what Fidotov is. Sam Erson, what happened last year? We overworked him. They carried three goalies through, like, Christmas last year. That's true. You were going to get a shot, and if not this year, they can't bring up Kyle Peterson after what they did. Like, he is just riding out the contract, man. You can't bring him back into this locker room after the way they threw him under the bus last year. Like, oh, yeah, he thinks he's cut again. Like, with this coach, no, it was him. He's the third goalie in the depth chart. You were going to get a shot. You weren't willing to ride it out. I realized, yeah, it's not the best situation, but making the NHL shouldn't be easy. You're not-- if he was-- like, Fidotov, we talked about his resume. I know, but it's just really-- he was one of the better goalies in the league, won a medal, what was it, a silver medal, won a-- their Stanley Cup, the Gargaren, I don't know how to say it. The Gargano Cup. Yeah, the Gargano Cup. Whatever the hell the things could be. He had a resume that it's like, yeah, you're going to come over and also, you're old. You need to play-- like, what do we get out of playing you in the NHL at this point? We got to figure out if you're an NHL goalie or not. Boom. Cole's out of your 22, man. Like, goalies don't play in the NHL at 22. It's not a thing. I just-- I don't understand what his gripe is other than, yeah, not for me in the NHL. And if that's the case, what-- what are the flyers supposed to do about that? Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that you're coming down on the side of the flyers. I am more of the opinion that the flyers cannot keep doing this. They can't keep having these problems with prospects. They're going to rebuild. This is a rebuilding team. They have told us we are rebuilding. We are stockpiling assets. We are adding draft picks. We're going to be bringing more prospects into the organization, and now in one calendar year, two of their top 10 prospects have basically been like, yeah, we totally disagree with what you're doing. We don't want to be part of this. I don't know if there is a hard fast connection, but I do think there is a connection in that the flyers need to stop this from happening, and that it's on them to figure out because in the end, this is a results-based business, OK? It's a results-based, it's a results-based business, and the result is two of their top prospects in a rebuild. Both are like, now we're good. This seems like something that is fixable. Like, compare this to Mitchkopf. And you've made this comparison as well. They showed up to the airport. They carried his bags. They have two Russians on the team. Like, I don't know if-- I don't know if Igor Zomol is still a Philadelphia flyer of Mitchkopf is here. I don't know. But Mitchkopf is here, and Zomol is staying here. Fedotov, I think, honestly, part of that thing was to have another guy for Mitchkopf. Once they started to get a read that, hey, maybe Mitchkopf, get out of this contract early. All right, get Fedotov over here. I think that's part of it. The flyers, it's not that they couldn't have laid out the red carpet for Kolosov. It's not that they couldn't have found somebody, found a friend, or whatever, on the team, somebody who knows Russian. Maybe not Russian, at least he speaks Russian. Somebody who has the language ability to speak the language. They could have done a better job. I don't think it's that the flyers screwed up exactly, but it's that this is an organization that has the resources to do more. Sure. And in the Kolosov situation, they didn't do enough more, if that makes sense. I guess my issue with it is that there was never any indication prior to them not doing enough that they weren't doing enough. It's very much just like getting broken up with and then getting the-- this is what you could be doing. There was never-- he signed his contract. He came over, and then he was unhappy. After, they agreed to the loan in year one. I was saying, OK, yeah, stay over there. We might not have a place for you. It just seems as if he never wanted to come over. That's really-- Maybe. But here's the thing. Again, this is why I find it very interesting that you are taking the flyers out on this. Why does this not seem to happen to other organizations? It's happened to the flyers twice in a year. And that's the-- which is why I'm saying the flyers-- this is not a-- this is not Carolina. This is not the coyotes before they move. This is not an organization that has the penny pinch. They have lots of money. They can spend lots of money on non-salar cap things to make sure their prospects are happy. Why didn't they do more? I guess they just didn't know they had to. Like, it just seemed-- But they shouldn't have to know. They should be doing that already. If you have the resources, why not? Do it, just in case. Like, other than have a Russian speaker around for him, like, what did they need to do? They brought the kid over. Like, I don't think he had to buy himself a plane ticket to get here. I bet you they flew him out. Like, they had the press conference. They introduced him in Fadotov. Like, it all happened. And then he was unhappy. I guess what I'm saying is we saw in the Mitchkoff situation that when they want to, they can, you know, do-- roll out the red car. We do everything for a guy. Is it true that Mitchkoff is a lot better of a prospect and a lot more important than Alexi calls off? Yes, it is. It is obviously objectively true. But if you could do it for him, why not just do it for everybody? Because then you can avoid these kinds of situations. I just don't think that's what it was. Like, to me-- and yet, like, combining this with Cutter-- and the difference is Cutter never signed a contract. Like, Kolsov is under-contracted, legally can't play anywhere else. He's supposed to be showing up for work and just kind of isn't. That to me is on him. But it is an issue that this has happened twice. Yes. I will say, and this is one thing-- again, I kind of side with Brieron, these are two guys who had little to no exposure to the organization. And just from the outside, like, eh, we're good. And we just keep seeing players choose to stay. Like, Travis Sandheim, after they told him, like, yeah, we're trading you. You're gone. His no-mover, his no-trade kicked in. And he was like, I'd exercise that if he tried to trade me again. I'm not going anywhere, even though the coach doesn't like me and sat me in my hometown, even though the team fucking-- Sure did do that. Damn, I did it. Sorry. Even though the team freaking stinks, like, I'm staying. Even-- like, it happened. You see, Travis connecting. I don't know. I think he could have got more if he hits free agency. Now, players love we know they hate moving. We know they hate insecurity. Like, they just like to have their contract and be where they are. I get it. But if he hits the open market, I think he gets more. Or at least it's the same. And maybe he goes to a team that's going to be in the playoffs less than three years from now. You know? We keep seeing dudes choose to stay, not to mention. If you stay here, you are automatically on the short list for front office jobs. Like, you have a job for life somewhere. If you're a Philadelphia flyer for like-- Dan, Keith Jones wasn't even here that long. He was here a couple of seasons. He is now-- and then he became a broadcaster, and then he became the president of the freaking team. It seems like they have a pretty good organizational infrastructure once you're inside. These outside problems, they clearly are like-- something is amiss because you're right. And I think that's my point. You're right. This doesn't seem to happen to other teams. Not nearly as much. Especially twice in a couple of months. Yes. That is inexplicably ridiculous. But I just don't see the connection between the two other than it happened. Right. You're being very shadowed about. I'm actually surprised. I wasn't expecting you to be as chair of the fight. The cutter thing, I do kind of blame on them. I think they did a great job of handling it. They did a great PR work handling it. Immediately in the immediate aftermath. And hopefully Jamie Drysdale is that dude. And we can all forget about it. And it's fine. But they probably could have done more to handle that situation. I just don't see-- like, yeah, Mavay Mishkov is the favorite to win the Calder. Kolosov was 43rd in save percentage in the KHL last year. He's some guy. They believe in him. But he's just some guy. His 907 was 43rd. That's without a game's played filter. But 43rd in the KHL. This year, although it's only two games for comparison sake, Zavragin's at a 930 for Sochi. He's doing quite good for a really bad team. Yeah, for a really bad team. And it's like, oh, well, maybe he's just facing a lot of shots. The other guy, who was a fifth round pick for Columbus in 2022, he's played three games for Sochi. He's at 909. He might not even be the best goalie in Russia for this team. I guess they could and should just roll out the red carpet because they can afford it. And why not? If it's going to make everyone happier, sure. It's just like, I don't know, show up to work, bro. You signed a contract. Show up to work. It's fair. Here's another thing, too, that I do want to point out about this. And this is something that I talked about on the show. I think it was last week. And I still hold this. If you're going to make the argument that this is Cola's soft fault, he has a sense of entitlement. He doesn't deserve to be in the NHL right away. And he's not willing to play in the NHL. And that's on him for being soft and whatever. Fair. I think it's a fair opinion to hold. And if you want to make the argument that Carter Gautier, he just isn't a good character guy. He has a big ego. And he wanted to be coddled. He wanted to be told how great he was. And that we desperately need you and all that stuff. OK, maybe that's the case. He hasn't all decided a story. That's a possible explanation. Why aren't these red flags coming up in the pre-draft evaluation? Why do they keep picking these guys? If this isn't the flyer's fall, why aren't you recognizing that these guys are problems before you spend draft pixels? And I think that might be the most fair critique is like, all right, maybe these are totally different situations. But you do need to then do a better job of figuring that out. And this is where I go back to resources. You're the flyer. You've got Comcast behind you. They're throwing gobs of money at everyone that ever laced up the skates for you. Maybe spend a little bit more on a private investigator to look into these guys. You know what I mean? Like, you have the resources. Where's your big job? Get at make a bigger dossier of these guys before you take them. Like, no, you're not Toronto, but you're the next year down, you got a lot of resources. Use them so that you're not wasting third round picks on guys who three years later decide they don't want to come over. I realize they're not Toronto because it's like, that's like Maple Leafs Incorporated, you know? So it's not the parent company, it's the company. But if Comcast wanted to, like, Comcast has more resources than like the United States of America. They could probably build an equal army if they were willing to pay to do. You know, like, they could do this. They built one tower in the center city. And then, like, three years later, like, no, we want a taller. We're going to beat ourselves. Like, they single-handedly ended the championship drought by putting Little William Penn up there. You know, they can do anything. I do think that's a fair criticism. I just, like, show up to work. Colossev's gripes to me are, like, I signed a contract with PHLY for two years. And they tell me, your job is to come into the studio every day. Five days a week, you have to come into the studio. And then on day one, I go, I'm going to need to work from home. Every day. Every day. And they're like, but you sign that, yeah. That doesn't work for me, just don't feel like doing it. It doesn't work for, like, I think PHLY would be justified in going, you have to come to work. That's just me, though. They need to figure out whether it's pre-draft, like, research or, like, or it's the way they treat the guys once they get. They have to figure out a way to stop this from happening because maybe more than anything, it's like other players are going to go, well, clearly dudes don't want to go there, so maybe I don't either. And then that's the only thing they ever think about the flyers and don't give them a second thought. And whether that's draft picks are free agents or guys waving clauses to get here, they're going to need those things to happen in order to reach the Stanley Cup one day. But, like, I just don't have an explanation for Cola Sova than he doesn't want to play in the AHL. And what do you do with that for a guy who needs to play in the AHL? He's not that good in the KHL. Wait, you're going to throw him in the net here? Like, no, sorry, that's not the way it works. Buy the same token, though. And this is something I did include in my column. Does this, now that we know that one of Cola Sova's big issues is he wants to play in the AHL. Does it make you think less of the decision to bring Fedotov over? Given the fact that Fedotov is older. Even if this goes really well, if Fedotov is above average NHL goalie, he's not going to be around for a decade. No. That is a present day win now type of move. Maybe he could be the goalie for three, four years. But he'll be in his early 30s pretty soon. If by signing Fedotov, you lost Cola Sova, was it worth it? This is where it's like, I know I've told them they need to be more like Vegas. Like, stop saying, well, man, he gave us everything, so we got to just treat him right. Even though it's, should you be allocating your resources this way? Like, no, Vegas has been through. How many coaches? How many GMs? How many goalie? Like, they don't care. They just let Marsha so go. He won the consummate. Like, they do need to be a little more cut through. But that kid's situation is just like, how do you, so you can come. And now we're going to tell you no after all that. Like, I just, yeah, maybe it was the wrong move. I just can't be like, oh, they screwed up, bringing this kid over who they thought they had two years earlier and then like on his way, got arrested and sent to the military in, you know, act of war. Like, it's not like, it's not like he was in the National Guard on like week, every other weekend or something, like he's on an aircraft carrier for a country that's at war. And then works his way back to be able to play in the KHL again. And now he can come, I just, yeah, maybe that did cost them. But also, Kolosov knew that when he signed. I'm not sure. I truly do. 'Cause it all happened at once. And I happen to understand, I don't know how much he did. I don't know how open the fliers even could have been with Kolosov about the nature of the field. Because they kept that third off situation very, very quiet because they didn't want to screw it up because obviously there's geopolitical things going on there. He got literally pulled out of an ice rink a year earlier and thrown on an aircraft carrier. So they didn't want to get him in any more trouble by getting it leaked. But I don't know if they told Kolosov, by the way, like you're not the only guy from the KHL we're bringing over in the next like couple of weeks. I don't know. And I guess it's when he then comes over and it's like, "Hey, what are you doing here?" - Yeah. - And one guy's going to the NHL and one guy isn't. - Maybe that could have played a part in it. Until we hear from Kolosov, I don't want to be like, "Well, that screwed it up." But yeah, maybe it wasn't the right to say, maybe that, maybe that is the turning point. And then if that did cost you a guy who the organ, and it's not like everyone's high on Kolosov. It's the organization that believes he's super freaking good, and could be a franchise goalie one day, then maybe you should handle it differently. I am willing to concede that part. - Yeah, and I'm not even saying necessarily that, he didn't know that Vidotov was coming over and then he came over and he felt like he was lied to. I don't know. I'm not accusing the fires of that. What I'm saying is that you have a guy in Kolosov who apparently right now is saying, I want to play, I would come over if I had an NHL spot, but they don't have an NHL spot to give him because they attached themselves for two years to a 28 year old. - You know what I mean? - And that's, maybe if the spot was open, they wouldn't have given it to him anyway, because they just think he'll be better off in the AHL and their opinion wouldn't have changed. But at least they would have had the option to think about it. Now it's like, where is he gonna play? Like, I guess you could trade Harrison, but they like him a lot. - They don't seem willing to do that. - Yeah. - He's like, they're coming in like, "Oh yeah, he's the starter." - Yeah, it's a very interesting situation. We're gonna have more on this in just a second, but first, maybe this is what the flyers need. 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And if you're looking for some accessories, toys, collectibles, or novelty items for your man cave, she, she, her podcast set, you've got to use FOCO for all those needs as well. FOCO always has our back for Philly sports and they have yours too. Get the best gear around by using the link in the description of the show. And for all non-preseal items, use the promo code PHLY10 for 10% off. That's PHLY10 for 10% off at FOCO today. Use FOCO, do it. All right. Is there any more on Colosov? How much do we-- - I think we pretty much-- - That's most of the show. - That's most of the show. - That one Colos. - It's the big story. - I'm writing a column on it. It'll be out in the next couple of hours, hopefully. But it was the big story today that we now got full fledged confirmation that Colosov is not coming. And Breair, for the first time on the record, revealed why, at least his-- - Interpretation as to why. - The one thing I saw on this that I hadn't seen before, I saw this on the hockey news, but it's from Elliot Friedman. The Flyers have informed interested teams that the price to acquire Colosov is a second real pick. However, Friedman also noted that teams will not acquire Colosov unless they are completely sure he would join them, obviously. A second round pick for a guy you drafted in the third and-- - Seems ambitious. - It's refusing to come over unless he can play in the NHL. At least that's what you're saying publicly. He ain't getting treated. That tells me the Flyers do not want to treat Colosov. - We are treating you. No, we are holding you hostage. Is that the right move? - Well, I guess you have to aim high in these sorts of things. If a team comes and offers a fourth, do they think about it? Maybe they think about it. But I think the Flyers are of the opinion that they want this guy in their organization and they want him to show up. I mean, Breyer said that on multiple occasions today that the door isn't closed. - Yeah, yeah. - He could show that he was straight up asked by Jackie Spiegel, the Inquirer, are you guys going to toll the contract? And Breyer said, we haven't even gone down that road yet because if he were to show up in December, then he's under contract, then he plays. And I think they're still hoping that at some point over the next few days, weeks, months, whatever, he changes his mind and shows up and then they'll put him in an allen town and they'll see how he does. To this point, and he very well may do this at some point in the future. To this point, he has not yet signed a contract with Mintz or with any KHL team. He is just practicing with Mintz and waiting around hoping the Flyers are going to change their mind about loading them, I guess. And the Flyers made a clear, Breyer made a clear today. They're not going to change their mind. So I don't know where this goes, but the Flyers are leaving the door open for him showing up at some point down the road. - And as much as I am siding with the Flyers on this, like, man, show up to work thing, should they just give in and loan him? Like, I know, like, you want him to play. Like, if you ultimately want him here, that means you want him to continue developing. No one is served by him just not being allowed to play anyway. - True. - Like, should you do the KHL, though? Like, the whole sign. - Yes. - Somebody will. They don't care about the truth. - I may be, but they haven't yet. - True. - Like, that's the thing is, like, the season's underway. We're five, six games into the KHL season. There's a 22-year-old goalie just sitting out there who's decent, at least, like, has some promise. He's not under contract yet. You're out of camp? Like, I don't know. I just, this might be where I'm like, even though I'm kind of on the flyer side, it's like, what do you lose other than, like, face? Like, getting in? - I think they're, now, you're just dug in and you can't. - I think their view is that if they cave on this, is he ever even gonna come over? Or is he just gonna say, "Well, I wanna stay in the KHL." And then you loaned him, what, three straight years? Again, in an ELC that you paid him signing bonuses for, and he just never came over, I don't think there's a lot of trust that if they were to loan him again, that he wouldn't do the same thing next summer. And be like, "Well, if there's not an HL spot for me, then I'm not coming." - All right. - I guess their view. - I guess that's the, I just don't want to, like, do you think this relationship's repaired? Like, now that this is happening and there's public statements being made and it's, they're saying the door's open, but like, is it even possible to repair this relationship, do you think? I guess we don't know, because we haven't heard anything directly from Colosov, it's just like, "Yeah, yeah, come on." - I would be surprised if Alexi Colos will ever play the game for the Philadelphia Flyers. - That's the way, I'm not saying it's impossible, just saying I would be surprised. - All right, the other bit of news we got today, we weren't sure if they actually executed the contract termination. I mean, wondered if they were just kind of-- - Brian Johansson. - Yeah, Brian Johansson. - He's gone. - Yeah. - They have executed the contract termination. - Breyer confirmed that today in the press or I specifically asked. - Yeah, we were wondering, like, "Oh, maybe they're just negotiating behind the scenes and this kind of ends in like a settlement that's basically the buyout that they couldn't get 'cause he claimed to be hurt." But no, the contract of Brian Johansson has been terminated. He's gotten to, like, mid-October to file the grievance in 60 days. - The NHLPA, 'cause they're the ones who would file on his behalf. - Yeah, the PA, yeah. - They have 60 days from the action point, which I'm presuming is the day it was terminated. I confirmed also with Breyer that it was terminated the day after he was placed on waivers. So yeah, that would be around mid-October. Also, I mean, and we've seen this in past disputes between the NHL and the NHLPA when these types of situations with contracts being terminated and whatnot. I'm thinking back to the Corey Perry situation. - Yeah, Corey Perry's contract got terminated for cause for, I guess, I don't know if it was referred to as a material breach, but functionally it was. It was like a character clause, essentially. - Some sort of issue, yeah, yeah, yeah. - The NHLPA threatened to file a grievance. They never actually did though, and then the NHL and the NHLPA announced a settlement without a grievance. Without a grievance having to be filed. So presumably that could be going on right now where maybe they're the two sides are talking and if they can't come up with a settlement by mid-October, then they file the grievance and start that process. - This is, it's always something that's, it's just another thing that I just wish we weren't, I mean, it's, listen, filled an hour with this stuff today, basically. It's good for us. But like for a team that, like we're saying, there might be some, the biggest issue right now might just be perception with the team. And it's not even perception in town. Like, oh, they're irrelevant. Oh, it's just the same old flyers. Like it's, league wide perception is like, this might not be the best place to work. Despite, it seems as if the great majority of players have a good time here. They like it, but there's just these like, high profile situations. Like Colossev, he might just not end up ever being anything. It's not as if he's the highest, this isn't as kind of where it's like, oh, he's ticketed for great net, like who knows. But like, he might just not be any good, who knows. But it's still a high profile enough situation that this has been going on. It's like, you go to sports net.ca and guess what? There's a Colossev article and now with Ryan Johansson, is he any good anymore? It doesn't seem like it. But everyone knows who Ryan Johansson is. It's not like this is just some dude. - Yeah. - How do these things just keep happening with the floor because it's the floor, the chaos organization, just chaos since '97? Look, I personally don't think that there is a perception around the league that the flyers, like it's not good time to play in Philly. It's not a good place. I don't think there's that perception. I do think there are some players that probably never wanna play for John Twitter Ella. I think that's real. I don't think players look at the Johansson situation and say, yeah, I don't wanna play in Philly. That place is a mess. I don't think so. But I do agree that it doesn't make the organization look good when they're constantly in the news for these types of things. - I just hope this thing gets resolved quickly. I know that's not going to happen because there's the grievance period and then the potential settlement. Do you think this just ends with like that after the fact settlement? And it's like, yeah, he's gonna count against the cap like a buyout? - I have always assumed that this is gonna end with a settlement of some sort. I always have. I think Ella Freeman has hinted as much when he's basically said that the last thing that the NHLPA wants is a precedent being set that teams can very easily terminate contracts and citing a material breach. That's why I never thought that it would ever get to the point where an arbitrator makes the decision because if it's a settlement, then both sides can settle and they can make it clear in the settlement that this is not precedent setting. This is a unique individual situation. If it goes to an arbitrator and an arbitrator sides with the NHL and the Flyers, then suddenly it makes it substantially easier for other teams to terminate the contracts of players if they just don't wanna pay them anymore. And I don't think the NHL wants to set that precedent. So the NHLPA wants to set that precedent. So the NHLPA is motivated to settle this. And I think the Flyers would be okay with settling it as well if it means they gets them far and off down where they're under the cap ceiling without having to use long-term injury reserve, which was the whole point of this in the first one. Yes. Before we wrap up today's show, I just wanna thank all of our subscribers, all of our diehards. We couldn't do what we do here at PHLY without you. And if you're not a diehard, sign up right now. AllPHLY.com so you can get stuff like, all this dude's premium content. - Pump it out. - We just spent a whole lot of time talking about Alexi Kolesov. I bet you, there's some stuff in that article. I didn't even think to touch on because he's that freakin' good. No super chats today. You mentioned cap compliance. So they're technically cap compliant right now 'cause they terminated the contract. - Yeah, it's not. If they terminate the deal, wish breer, so they did, they are under the cap. They had a very clear path to being under the cap for day one of the regular season, even without using long-term injury reserve. However, and I did say this when it happened a couple of months ago, or last month. I don't remember the exact, maybe about a month and a half ago, I think it's when it went down. Because of the possibility of a settlement or in theory, the possibility of a grievance and then losing it, I think they're gonna tread lightly in terms of just assuming that they have $4 million worth of cap space freed up. Because they know it's possible that in the event of a settlement, they might end up having $2 million or whether they cap it on their books instead of four. So they're gonna tread lightly in terms of, they're not gonna run out, I think, and sign somebody who's still out of the market for $3 million or whatever. I mean, obviously offer sheets are pretty much out of the question at this point, but that's more or less what I'm saying, is that yes, they technically have the space, but it's still in their heads. They're not gonna use it. We shouldn't use it all right now because it might come back to haunt us if we do. But if they need to call someone up, they can, stuff like that. Like they're not right up against it or the 830,000 over that they were prior to the termination. All right, we did get too late super chats. Let's get to those from Zeno Theum. So has Ryan Johanchen actually had that surgery that his agent said was scheduled? - I don't know. - That's a great question. No idea. They said it was soon. - Said it was scheduled. - It seemed as if it was gonna be like, and that's gonna keep him from reporting to camp. And that was the whole idea. Sure, it was to like, you know, maybe have a summer and avoid his wedding, but that's kind of where they're like, listen, that's why the flyers have an issue. - Well, if the contract's terminated, he doesn't have to report to camp. He's not under contract anymore. - That's true. All right, and from Gary B, Alexi Kolesov, seems like an entitled D-bag. - Oh, Gary, you have every right to believe that. If you might not disagree, based on the information I have right now, I kind of feel you, Gary. - I am not ready to say it. - No, you're a journalist. You're not gonna say that about a guy. And you are, that's a fine opinion to have. We don't know all the information as well. Based on the information presently, I think there might be an entitlement issue with Alexi Kolesov, but we don't know everything. - And I think look at it from his respect to two. We're looking at it, obviously, from the perspective of the flyers. Fans are looking at it from the perspective of the flyers and what is good for the flyers. I understand why Alexi Kolesov, who obviously is not, you know, he's fellow Russian. He's Eastern European, that's his home. He's looking at it as, I went over to Allentown and I hated it. I was miserable. I hated it. I don't wanna do that again. I'm honestly probably lukewarm on the idea of living in North America, because I just won't feel comfortable or whatever. If I'm playing in the NHL, I'll deal with it, because it's the freaking NHL. But if it's not the NHL, I'm not gonna make myself be miserable just to play in the minors. And that might be the way he's looking at it. And you know what? Like, I don't think that necessarily makes him jerk. Fires fans are welcome to disagree, but I get where he's coming from in that he's like, look, like, I am not gonna be happy in North America. I will deal with not being happy if I'm in the NHL. But if I'm not, I'd rather just stay in Europe. The argument on the other side is, well, dude, you signed a contract. So you have to, you know, be mature and live up to the consequences of your decisions. But I'm looking into this from a human perspective and I'm saying that I understand why he could be like, I don't like it in North America, but I'll do it if I'm playing in the freaking NHL. - Yeah, I get it. It's just like, sometimes we do have to deal with the consequences of our decisions, even if we don't like them. That's, you know, that's all. - All right, and that is all the time we have for you on PHO Live Flyers today. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for hanging out. If you haven't already, you gotta hit that subscribe button. Follow us right here on YouTube. Hit that reminder bell so you never miss a live show. 4 p.m. is our new non-game day start time, perhaps permanently. So make sure you're here for that. Follow us on Twitter @PHLY_FLYERS and follow the podcast as well wherever you get those. Just search PHLY_FLYERS. That's it. My name's Bill Mats. That's Charlie O'Connor. Until tomorrow, you stay loose and sexy, Philly. (upbeat music) ♪ Don't see me like the man ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Don't see me like the man ♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]
