Flyers sign Ilya Pautov, adding another prospect for Lehigh Valley

A sixth-round pick from Novosibirsk is now another name to track in the Lehigh Valley pipeline, as the Flyers signed Ilya Pautov to a three-year entry-level contract and kept building out a young forward group that could feed the Phantoms for years.

Pautov, 20, was selected 173rd overall in the 2024 NHL Draft and became the fifth player from Philadelphia’s 2024 class to land an entry-level deal. He joins Jack Berglund, Spencer Gill, Jett Luchanko and Noah Powell in a group the Flyers have moved to secure quickly, a clear sign the organization wants those rights tied down before the usual uncertainty around long-term development can creep in.

For Lehigh Valley, the fit is obvious and still distant. Pautov is a right wing who shoots left, listed at 5-foot-11 and 167 pounds, and he has already spent time in men’s pro hockey in the VHL with Moscow Zvezda. In 25 regular-season games there in 2025-26, he recorded one goal and four assists for five points, with a minus-4 rating and eight penalty minutes. That is not top-line production, but it is the kind of early pro exposure the Flyers value when they are projecting who can eventually survive the jump to the AHL and, later, the NHL.

The comparison points inside the organization show where Pautov stands. Luchanko has already been viewed as the most advanced of the group, while Gill, Powell and Berglund have each been signed to long-term development timelines of their own. Pautov is not being pushed to the front of that line. Instead, he looks like the kind of winger who may need AHL time in Allentown to turn raw tools into dependable minutes, especially if he can translate the offense he showed in the MHL. With Krasnaya Armiya Moskva in 2024-25, he posted 45 points in 52 games, a far more productive stretch that suggests there is scoring touch beneath the modest VHL totals.

That is the bet Philadelphia is making now. The Flyers drafted seven players in 2024, and by signing Pautov they have continued the effort to lock in the class and give the system more young forwards to sort through. He is not walking into a guaranteed Phantoms role, but he is on the map, and in an organization that has made Lehigh Valley part of the long game, that matters. The next question is whether Pautov becomes a real option in Allentown or simply another prospect whose value is measured in patience.