There's certainly no downside to losing the games, but it does wear on Ersson and the other young players, and the unique situation of both goaltenders makes patience more difficult, and will hurt their own development. Fedotov makes too much money to be playing in the AHL and is only under contract for two years while Kolosov basically refuses to play in the AHL and will reach restricted free agency after two years. Odds are neither of them are the future if Ersson isn't (maybe it's Zavragin, maybe it's a FA).
Where the cap money hurts is even if they did send Fedotov to the AHL they can't afford to replace him with a short-term vet (other than the one they are also already paying).
What Kurz implies is that the only reason the Flyers were able to get Kolosov to report is because they realized Fedotov was in over his head. That's the embarrassing part. They put a lot of time and effort into being able to sign Fedotov and while his contractual leverage could have been avoided it seems they overestimated his readiness/ability. And also completely whiffed on Kolosov as far as him wanting to go back to the KHL.
It's not at all like Bobrovsky, who was not only already NHL-ready but actually good. Bad as the trade/decision was.
Ironically Kurz also points out that Stolarz would be a cheaper/better back-up than Fedotov right now too.
