The Flyers signed an aging Russian veteran defenseman this season named Yevgeni Medvedev. Lots of fans were probably thinking hard to try and remember if they had ever heard of this guy, and almost everyone probably had not. It’d be hard for someone to hear of a solid defenseman from Russia, who has only played in the KHL in Russia for his whole career and was never a standout star.

So just who is this defenseman the Flyers have signed, and can he have a positive impact on the team? Well lets look into it, first with this scouting report from eliteprospects.com:

“A large, yet very mobile and smooth skating defenseman. Medvedev sees the ice well and has good hockey sense. He can pass really well, but also possesses a hard shot. Could play a more physical and aggressive game given his size.”

Medvedev went undrafted in the NHL draft, therefore he went to the Russian Superleague in 2002, and later the KHL, thus committing to playing in Russia for the vast majority of his career. He has won two KHL championships (Gagarin Cup) and has made three All-star appearances.

Coming now to the Flyers, Medvedev is a 6’3″ 187 pound defenseman. It’s nice when you can have size, physicality, and mobility out of a player, especially with a defenseman. For the Flyers, as long as Medvedev is not careless moving and handling the puck, he is a great improvement to their defensive corps.

That’s not all for Medvedev, however. This guy has some serious puck handling skills that are world-class as well, and top-notch offensive skill. Check out these videos where in the first you see him in a breakaway, and in the second you’ll see a variety of different highlights from the Russian big man:

Now you may begin to see why the Flyers brought him in. He may be a great addition to the defense, and while he may not put up huge numbers, his signing adds another weapon to be utilized by Head Coach Dave Hakstol.

I also think it is nice a successful KHL veteran like Medvedev can be on the team to mentor 2015 first round pick Ivan Provorov, who also came over from Russia. It will be interesting to see how they interact throughout training camp.

I think Medvedev can bring some production to this Flyers team, and add some nice depth to the NHL roster. I would like to see who he will be paired with when training camp starts before making too many predictions, but he should add some reliability and consistency to the second or third defensive pairings.