The standout prospect hasn't overtaken his peer in goal quite yet.
For the Philadelphia Flyers and fans who were hoping for the opposite, the 2025-26 season won't be starting at a gallop for top goalie prospect Egor Zavragin. Not yet, anyway.
On Sunday, Zavragin and his new KHL team, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, opened their regular season with an away matchup against Amur Khabarovsk.
Zavragin, 21, remained on the bench as an unused backup goalie, however, with holdover Alexander Smolin, who is slightly more experienced, drawing the start for Metallurg.
Smolin, 22, stopped 18 of 20 shots (.900) in the 4-2 win over Amur, turning in a good but not great performance that won't do anything to shake the coaching staff's faith in him going forward.
Smolin will turn 23 next month, and given that he has been with Metallurg for four seasons now, this is not exactly a surprising outcome.
There is, however, good news that we must also consider.
Looking back to last year, Smolin played in 35 games for Metallurg, going 23-8-2 with a 2.33 GAA, .915 save percentage, and one shutout while rotating with Ilya Nabokov.
Nabokov, 23, has now made the leap to North America and will be playing in the Colorado Avalanche organization this season. With his departure looming, Metallurg still gave Nabokov 38 games last year, in which he went 22-7-5.
So, knowing that one of their homegrown talents was going to leave, imminently or not, Metallurg still played their hand normally.
That bodes well for Zavragin, who, much to the Flyers' chagrin, went through the racket last season, playing KHL, MHL, and VHL games despite being a KHL regular in 2024-25. Zavragin was, in fact, statistically improved from 2024-25 to last year, jumping from a .912 save percentage to a .919 in spite of a losing 5-7-0 record.
"Yeah, I mean, it was a little disappointing to see, and there was a time where he, early in the year, had the best stats out of the group of three, and I think it almost felt like it was decided before that he was the youngest and he was going to be the one going to the VHL," Flyers GM Danny Briere said in a June Q&A with The Hockey News.
"So it's unfortunate, but we have no control over what they do now. There's a little bit of hope that he's going to be in the KHL the whole year and play some KHL games next year. I think it's going to be great for his development, and there's no rush, especially now knowing and seeing what we have here."
Metallurg went out of their way to get Zavragin from SKA St. Petersburg, and having lost in the Gagarin Cup semifinals, the KHL outfit will undoubtedly aspire to avenge their postseason loss.
It's early days for Zavragin still, but we now know who the No. 1, or at least 1A, goalkeeper is.
