Is Ivan Fedotov simply too big for the NHL (BBD Discussion)

Satan

MIGHTY
Apr 13, 2010
92,142
14,280
Lapland
I've covered the Big Boy Decade extensively. I am the #1 Matt Rempe Fan. It's early - real early - but is Ivan Fedotov too big to be an NHL goalie? He's probably close to 7' tall with skates on. The early returns on his NHL career have been awful. It took 6'7 goalie Ben Bishop a couple years to find his footing in the big league- so maybe Ivan needs to grow into his skates.

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Bones Malone

Owner - HF Boards
Oct 22, 2010
21,115
2,175
Buffalo
I've covered the Big Boy Decade extensively. I am the #1 Matt Rempe Fan. It's early - real early - but is Ivan Fedotov too big to be an NHL goalie? He's probably close to 7' tall with skates on. The early returns on his NHL career have been awful. It took 6'7 goalie Ben Bishop a couple years to find his footing in the big league- so maybe Ivan needs to grow into his skates.

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Hope you covered the BBD better than you did your fantasy hockey dues, you deadbeat.
 

BKarchitect

Registered User
Oct 12, 2017
8,116
14,450
Kansas City, MO
His agent needs a raise...how a 27-year-old goalie with no NHL experience and who isn't even that highly regarded in his domestic league got a one-way, 2-year deal at $3.275 million annually is one of the more bizarre contracts from the summer.

Especially when the same organization gave a younger, better goalie who has already done well in stretches in the NHL a 2-year deal at less than $3 million per year at basically the same exact time.

If Fedotov was unattached to an NHL team, it's not like there would have been some bidding war for him. So, it's really confounding that he got over $6.5 million in contract without having stepped onto an NHL rink. Is there some sort of financial commitment baked into it from the previous struggles to bring him over?
 

TheDawnOfANewTage

Dahlin, it’ll all be fine
Dec 17, 2018
12,884
19,009
His agent needs a raise...how a 27-year-old goalie with no NHL experience and who isn't even that highly regarded in his domestic league got a one-way, 2-year deal at $3.275 million annually is one of the more bizarre contracts from the summer.

Especially when the same organization gave a younger, better goalie who has already done well in stretches in the NHL a 2-year deal at less than $3 million per year at basically the same exact time.

If Fedotov was unattached to an NHL team, it's not like there would have been some bidding war for him. So, it's really confounding that he got over $6.5 million in contract without having stepped onto an NHL rink. Is there some sort of financial commitment baked into it from the previous struggles to bring him over?

It’s especially weird because he looked noticeably not good enough in like his 3rd game, against the Sabres. I think there was some beginner luck, but by that matchup his team was scared to give up any chances, I remember him getting completely turned around so he’s facing the guy behind the net as it pops in front- losing his goal stick, pushing off to the wrong post- like, if I notice bad goaltending off of one period it cant be turned into an nhl career. Not like an off period or anything, I mean any amateur watching would notice the difference between that guy and a fringe starter with one period of watching.

Dunno what this BBD thing is, don’t wanna know OP’s internet history is.
 
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Breakers

Make Mirrored Visors Legal Again
Aug 5, 2014
22,641
21,247
Denver Colorado
So essentially goalies with elite numbers in the KHL turn out to be top 5 goalies in the NHL or ECHL emergency backups

There is no in between
 

Rich Nixon

No Prior Knowledge of "Flyers"
Jul 11, 2006
15,252
20,012
Key Biscayne
His agent needs a raise...how a 27-year-old goalie with no NHL experience and who isn't even that highly regarded in his domestic league got a one-way, 2-year deal at $3.275 million annually is one of the more bizarre contracts from the summer.

Especially when the same organization gave a younger, better goalie who has already done well in stretches in the NHL a 2-year deal at less than $3 million per year at basically the same exact time.

If Fedotov was unattached to an NHL team, it's not like there would have been some bidding war for him. So, it's really confounding that he got over $6.5 million in contract without having stepped onto an NHL rink. Is there some sort of financial commitment baked into it from the previous struggles to bring him over?

He had stepped onto an NHL rink. Twice*. And gotten lit up.

There's some speculation that it was, more or less, money laundering. Since the Flyers couldn't buy Michkov's KHL deal out directly, they gave Fedotov an outsized contract so their shared Russian agent got a large enough cut to pay off SKA and get Matvei over sooner.

*thrice, maybe?
 
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Juicy Pop

Tank Commander Fedotov
Apr 26, 2014
9,793
5,141
Wilkes Barre
Maybe?

From what I've seen, that size leads to some rather large gaps to shoot at and he doesn't seem to have the reaction speed/vision to make up for it. He tries to abuse the height advantage for tracking, but it only seems to put him out of position more often that not.

Another significant issue is that he has the tendency to sit far back in the net and hasn't visibly challenged shooters.
 

Turin

Erik Karlsson is good
Feb 27, 2018
23,920
28,246
He's not good, never was particularly good. People got bamboozled into thinking Russia was trying to hoard him because he was a superstar or something.
 

Bard Marchand

Registered User
Oct 24, 2023
55
211
Smallest 6'7 goalie I've ever seen. Somehow doesn't manage to look big in net. When trying to track the pack through traffic he stands up straight and narrow to try and look over everyone's heads. Plays a weird unconventional style where he always looks uncontrolled.

Stays far back in the crease and doesn't challenge shooters. Which at first I thought was bad until Boucher mentioned that goalies actually give themselves an extra few milliseconds to respond to a shot by being far back without (hypothetically) sacrificing their physical ability to cover that space when they are as big as Fedotov.

I agree with the other guy here who guessed that paying Fedotov is somehow related to the Flyers being able to bring Michkov over early. No concrete evidence of that yet but seems plausible. I think of Fedotov as the Michkov tax.
 

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