2025-26 Player Grades: Sam Ersson rebounded during Flyers’ stretch run

The 2025-26 season was sure to be a major one for goaltender Sam Ersson. Coming off of as close to disastrous of a season as possible in 2024-25, in which he got away from his game so severely that he landed down in the basement of the league rankings in goaltenders as a result, and heading into a contract year, Ersson needed to find a way to get his game back on track and fast if he wanted to hold on to his place in this organization.

And while the year was still an up and down one, the combination of some sheltered usage allowed by the emergence of Dan Vladar in the starting role and greater support offered by the team’s late-season systems adjustments allowed Ersson to finally find his footing again, and get himself back to more solid form in a meaningful way through the end of the season.

This season was, on the whole, kind of a wild one for Ersson. Looking at the numbers averaging out the whole of the season, the takeaways are somewhat lukewarm. Ersson put up middling game results, and improved marginally in his Goals Against Average from the season before, as well as in his performance relative to the expected results, which is something, but the fact remains that those numbers in isolation still aren’t up to the level that the Flyers would have hoped to see from him.

But what was particularly striking about this season for Ersson was how dramatic the difference in his play was before the Olympic break and after. That is, through his first 26 appearances of the season leading up to the break, Ersson posted a meager .858 SV% and a -22.04 GSAA, worst in the league among goaltenders with 10 or more games played. He had some positive flashes through that span, but with a nagging lower-body injury hampering him, his play was never really able to get off the ground. But after that extended break, Ersson came back looking positively renewed for the final month and change of the season, and the difference was truly night and day — though it was only eight games played for him for the rest of the season, he averaged a .911 SV% and a 2.71 GSAA over those games, figures which moved him into a respectable 14th in league rankings over that time and actually bested his goaltending partner in Dan Vladar (+.05 percent in SV%, and -.35 in GAA), and improvement such that there were legitimate questions being posed about whether the Flyers would consider tossing him a playoff start.

Now, some of this all but certainly came as a result of some improved defensive play in front of him — Rick Tocchet acknowledged that the team made some changes to their scheme on the other side of the break, and that gave them an all-around boost — making his life a lot easier, but combining this with his health being restored and his usage optimized, and the Flyers looked like they may have just found the ticket to unlocking his best form again.

Did Ersson live up to expectations?

With his 2024-25 season playing out as poorly as it did, there was a degree of feeling that no matter what Ersson was able to do this season, that it was sure to be an improvement on what he delivered last time around. And while the first portion of the season wasn’t all that dramatic of a step forward, it was a marginal one, which was, in some ways, nice to see.

But how he was able to get his game going on the other side of the break was the most encouraging, and indeed exceeded any expectations that we might have had about just how well he could bounce back from both that rough last season as well as the challenging first half of this one.

It all sort of averages out to a fine rebound, and makes for a nice bit of optimism about what he can do heading into next season, if the broader context remains favorable for him.

What can we expect from Ersson next season?

And herein lies the big question. Ersson is due another contract this season, as he moves into his final RFA year before hitting Unrestricted Free Agency next summer. The Flyers won’t be letting him walk for nothing, but whether they commit to more term than that, or flip him on that new contract for an upgrade at the backup position will make for some real illumination in both how the team estimates Ersson’s ability to build on that strong finish to the season, as well as how they view the plan for the season as a whole, whether it’s another “just see what we can do while the young guys develop” year, or a step forward towards legitimate contention.

But as far as Ersson’s play goes, the question of expectations remains an interesting one. If the Flyers opt to bet on him for at least one more season, to run it back with this tandem, there’s reason for optimism that this could be a play that works out for them. After all, they seem to have found a defensive structure which insulates both of their goaltenders to a greater degree, and when healthy, and managed in his volume of starts, Ersson was able to put together stretches of looking again like a perfectly cromulent backup. If that mix can continue to work for them, they’ll be in good shape to make a quick step forward without having to spend any assets.

There’s still some real risk for regression, or a continued struggle with injuries leading to more missed time, but Ersson still has all of the tools to be a good backup at this level, for this team, so long as he can keep it together.

How do we grade Ersson’s 2025-26 season?

While it didn’t start out great for him — and we do have to ding him for that, ultimately — we give a lot of credit to Ersson for overcoming those challenging circumstances through the first two thirds of the season, and getting things on track in a big way down the stretch, when they needed him to be at his best the most. Maybe it’s recency bias, but rising to the occasion in those big moments, in the heat of a push for the playoffs — and, indeed, undoing some of the bad bits from earlier in the season in the process — did a lot to help the team and to rebuild a bit of his stock along with it, and for that, we can feel comfortable saying this all averages out to a pretty, well, average season for him.

Grade: C-