In a season where the Flyers have struggled mightily to find consistent goal-scoring, failing to score more than two goals in a game times out of their contests, they have had to rely on suppressing shots and goals to win games.
While they have played an improved style of defense, a tent pole staple of Rick Tocchet’s coaching philosophy, they create so little offense on the other end that it almost evens out. The Flyers are one of the best teams in the league at limiting shots, but their lack of offensive acumen means that they are equally as bad at generating them. The Flyers have taken the 29th fewest shots in the league, but they have allowed the 29th fewest as well, so it essentially washes out. The key difference that had kept the Flyers in the race for as long as they were was the play of starting goaltender Dan Vladar.
Through his first 26 games, Vladar put up a .910 save percentage with the Flyers and looked like a legitimate starting goaltender for the first time in his NHL career. While playing the lion’s share of games, Vladar has put together a season where he has the ninth best goals saved above expected among goalies that have played 40 or more games. Given that he’s never hit that mark of 40 games played in a season in his career up to this point, that’s just about all you can ask for from the 28 year old.
But we had similar discussions in the past, maybe not to the same extent, about Samuel Ersson.
While Ersson has put together a few good starts on the other side of the Olympic break, which is notable, he spent much more of the season looking like he was now a shell of his former self, and struggling to even fill the role of an NHL backup. It’s a disappointing development, to be sure, particularly as there was a time not too long ago when he was used like a true number one goaltender. Ersson started 49, and then 45 games in successive years under John Tortorella, and by the time he reached the end of that second season, he appeared mentally and physically spent. The end of Ersson’s 2024-25 season saw him be completely overworked down the stretch, simply due to the fact that the Flyers had no better options anywhere in the organization.
That stretch of time may not have killed Sam Ersson’s career outright, but it certainly didn’t help his trajectory.
Now, it’s fair to say that Dan Vladar is flat out better than Sam Ersson, that much is true, but it is important that the Flyers don’t burn Vladar out completely in the same way, trying to push for a playoff spot that is almost entirely owed to his breakout season.
While he’s still had some very solid performances during this post-break stretch, Vladar has only put up a .897 save percentage in his last 15 games, and more than that, he seems to be a beat slower to shots as of recent. Some of the goals that Vladar has been allowing, like in the recent 6-2 loss to the Rangers, he just wasn’t letting in earlier on in the year.
With 16 games left to play in the regular season, and the Flyers still six points adrift of the last wild card spot with two teams in front of them, the situation seems to be setting up for one final push over the next week and change. If the Flyers want to go on a winning streak, they need to play Vladar. They do not score or create enough to withstand or outscore the inevitable Sam Ersson weak goals or Aleksei Kolosov inconsistencies.
But in trying to cling to some sort of playoff hope, the Flyers also cannot tarnish what has been a massive personal step forward for Vladar. In a year where he made his country’s Olympic team and established himself as a legitimate starting goaltender after being passed over for Dustin Wolf in Calgary, he’s made major strides to reclaim his game and role at this level. It seems like Daniel Briere and the front office may have found a diamond in the rough, one that may be of use long into the future as the Flyers try to sift through some young goaltenders they have in their system.
Ending Vladar’s season on a sour note, especially by overplaying him through what will be a congested schedule in April, might not be worth the risk.
