No member of the Philadelphia Flyers has won the Hart Trophy since Eric Lindros did for his 1994-95 season, but one player could at least get some recognition in the voting this season.
When the Flyers signed Dan Vladar to a two-year contract last summer, he was seen as a temporary solution to a long-term problem. A career backup before arriving in Philadelphia, the 28-year-old netminder has never really been given the chance to have the majority of the crease, whether it was in Calgary or in Boston. And now with the Flyers, he won that job and more.
In 52 appearances for the Flyers this season, Vladar has earned a .906 save percentage and a 2.42 goals against average. The numbers aren’t mind-bogglingly good or lead the league or anything, but it is all the Flyers needed to then become the team that the rest of the roster reflects: A damn good one. Vladar simply had one of the best season of a Flyers goalie in the last 10 years and arguably in the modern era.
Because of this, there is now some buzz that Vladar should get some recognition for the Hart Trophy, as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player.
Should Dan Vladar get some Hart Trophy recognition?
On Tuesday’s episode of The Sheet with Jeff Marek, Marek brought up the concept of some unspoken rules about Hart voting. A whole lot of those who vote on the award, the members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, believe that it wouldn’t make sense to give someone the MVP award if they didn’t make the playoffs.
With that in mind, and what it means for other candidates, maybe the player who willed his team into the playoffs, when no one expected them to before the season, should get some Hart Trophy love.
Has Dan Vladar made a case for the Hart trophy? @JeffMarek & @wyshynski both think the #LetsGoFlyers netminder should be in the conversation for league MVP.
— The Sheet with Jeff Marek (@thesheethockey) April 14, 2026
Presented by @FanDuelCanada #TheSheet pic.twitter.com/AFfOpc4BUW
“If you believe that you need to accomplish something to qualify for the Hart Trophy, right? Macklin Celebrini’s not going to win the Hart Trophy because the San Jose Sharks did not get in the playoffs but if the San Jose Sharks got in the playoffs, serious consideration about Macklin Celebrini for the Hart Trophy. Based on that criteria, I would submit to the panel for conversation: Dan Vladar,” Marek said.
“Is there anyone else on that team? He saved this team this year. Philadelphia Flyers — there are a lot of games they had no business winning and they did, you know why? Dan Vladar. On the scale of you need to achieve something that people didn’t think was achievable for your team, that should grant you into at least the conversation for the Hart Trophy.”
Marek’s co-host Greg Wyshynski followed that up by talking about how he was doing some rough outlines of his own Hart Trophy ballot, since they are due on Friday for all members of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association. And, somewhat surprisingly, Vladar placed fifth in his own personal ranking for the upcoming ballot. And notably, Vladar was behind — in this projected ballot from the ESPN senior writer — Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Macklin Celebrini. All four, top-of-the-pack forwards who do (and will) regularly score 100 points and will their team into so many scoring chances it is hard to comprehend.
Now, it is obvious that Vladar won’t win the Hart Trophy. Not only does he not really have the season for it, it is nearly impossible for a goaltender to win the award unless there are no real candidates at forward (because defenseman, also, rarely get it) and they are clearly the only reason their team accomplished something.
Connor Hellebuyck is the prime example who just last season, walked away with the Hart Trophy because of just how stellar of a season he had — it was historic and there wasn’t a forward who clearly dominated and stole games like he did for the Winnipeg Jets a year ago. But, it’s not crazy for Vladar to at least get some votes and get the votes from people who like to include a goalie on their ballots.
Out of every other playoff team, Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman might be the only other candidate with the same set of rules. As a netminder for a team who no one really expected them to be this good, and has the statistics to back it up. But considering that Vladar seemingly came out of nowhere, it’s a little bit more fun to think about him as a Hart candidate.
The last time a Flyer got any significant recognition for the Hart was when Claude Giroux placed fourth in voting after the 2017-18 season, where he finished with a career-high 102 points. Could it now be Vladar’s turn?
