The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that they have signed 32 year old Russian defenseman Yevgeni Medvedev to a contract. Details are not yet known. Here’s more from the Flyers press release.
Yevgeni Medvedev, 32 (8/27/1982), is a native of Chelyabinsk, Russia. He comes to North America for the first time after a long professional career in his home country. He has played in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) since its inception in 2008 and spent three seasons prior to that playing in the KHL’s predecessor, the Russian Elite League.
For the past eight years, Medvedev has played for Ak Bars Kazan, the last seven of which have come as a member of the KHL. He has appeared in 373 career games for the team, recording 37 goals and 128 assists for 165 points, along with 408 PIM and a +100 rating.
During his seven years in the KHL, Medvedev has won two Gagarin Cup league championships with Ak Bars Kazan (2008-09, 2009-10) and has been a three-time KHL All-Star (2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14). He has also represented Russia internationally for the past four years, winning gold medals at the World Championships in 2011-12 and 2013-14 and a silver medal in this year’s World Championships in Prague that ended this past weekend. Medvedev also represented Russia at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Yevgeni Medvedev provides the Flyers with some blue line depth, which never hurts, especially when your blue line isn’t that great. He’s 6’3″ tall and is a surprisingly good skater for someone of that height. He weighs 187 pounds. He’s not that physical of a defenseman, but he can move the puck well and has had a lot of success playing in arguably the second best hockey league in the world.
Signing Yevgeni Medvedev is the equivalent of the Flyers buying a lottery ticket. If it pans out, awesome the Flyers get rich (or better in this case). If it doesn’t, oh well, they didn’t invest much money in it. I like the signing for the Flyers and I’m curious to see how Yevgeni Medvedev does in North America.
