Well, you can’t say that the Philadelphia Flyers’ summer has not been interesting.

Outside of a fairly controversial 2024 NHL Entry Draft, top prospect Matvei Michkov coming early, and the Flyers not really trading anyone that we expected them to, there is still the whole saga of what has happened surrounding young goaltender Alexei Kolosov.

To simply explain it in a way that might sound like someone rambling on the street corner: Kolosov signed an NHL contract with the Flyers last summer and then was loaned to his KHL team to further develop back home. He then finished that loan when his KHL season was done, and then came overseas to play North American hockey for the first time, and get acquainted with the whole organization. He went to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and played a couple games there, but was mainly just involved in practices and not actually on the ice during meaningful matches. He then went back home with the expectation that he would be back for training camp in the fall.

And then, a couple reports from a Belarusian hockey website came out that Kolosov hated his time in North America and wanted to stay home next season, and then more people wanting to dive deeper and say that he is not going to be in the Flyers organization anymore. Add in him not showing up for development camp earlier this month and a couple reports of the team “abandoning” the player later, and it blew up into an entire ordeal that caused fans to almost pick up some pitchforks and torches.

Well, please calm down. It is basically August.

After the minor reports kept on going that Kolosov was not going to be a part of the organization and he wanted no part of playing hockey away from home, the actual truth needed to be told and the rumblings shutdown.

According to multiple reports on Tuesday — from essentially every Flyers reporter with substance — there is no truth currently to the rumors that the team “abandoned” Kolosov in a hotel for months, he chose to be there during his time stateside instead of having his teammates as roommates. The development plan was communicated to him by the team and everything was made clear that he would be the No. 1 goalie in the AHL for the 2024-25 season and we would go from there.

The Flyers have not heard anything different and he is expected to come to training camp this fall. Nothing official has been reported that Kolosov wants out of his NHL contract or doesn’t want to try to make it in the NHL when given the opportunity.

It is certainly not untrue that Kolosov could have felt uncomfortable and dealt with some culture shock being in the United States, but the Flyers are reportedly trying to prevent that from possibly happening again next season. According to PHLY’s Charlie O’Connor, the Flyers have explored the possibility of Kolosov being able to bring his girlfriend over from Belarus to make the transition less difficult. Additionally, the Flyers are reportedly planning on adding a player that speaks Russian to the Phantoms’ roster, to do the same thing. They aim to do that before training camp.

Essentially, the Flyers did not “abandon” this player and make him tough it out on his own thousands of miles away from his home. Kolosov is still seen as a potentially very good goalie for the Flyers in the future and now he is making the biggest step in his career, playing a full season of North American hockey. One has to imagine it takes some guts and there could be some hesitancy, but by all accounts, everything is on the right track.