Danny Briere has been a busy man today. After inking Noah Juulsen and Christian Dvorak, the Flyers general manager has addressed the goaltending issue, signing former Calgary Flames goaltender Dan Vladar to a two-year, $6.7 million deal ($3.35 million AAV).
BREAKING: We have agreed to terms with goaltender Dan Vladar on a two-year contract worth an average annual value (AAV) of $3.35M. https://t.co/MG0Hvi5sY4
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) July 1, 2025
With the goaltending situation in dire need of fixing or attempting to fix, Philadelphia decided to go with Vladar. Vladar has some upside compared to Jake Allen (who signed a five-year deal with New Jersey) as he’s only 27 years old now and will be 28 in August. As well, Vladar played 30 games for the Flames last year, ending up with a 2.80 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage. Yes, almost a Flyers goaltender with a .900 save percentage. He should also be a reliable and far more credible tandem goaltender with Sam Ersson, especially after the circus-like disaster Philadelphia had with a three-goalie rotation at times of Ersson, Ivan Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov.
Vladar, drafted in the third round (75th overall) in the 2015 NHL Draft by the Bruins, played all of five regular season games for Boston. He was traded to Calgary in July 2021 for a draft pick. Since then Vladar has averaged somewhere in the 25-game to 30-game range but played nearly 1800 minutes this past season (1781). He should provide help in the net which is something the Flyers were sadly lacking all of 2024-25. In his NHL career Vladar has a 2.99 goal-against average and a .895 save percentage.
What this does is almost guarantee that Sam Ersson and Dan Vladar are going to be the Flyers tandem (barring injury) this coming season. Vladar is not going to be paid that amount of coin to end up playing once a month as some three-man rotation like Aleksei Kolosov (and to a certain extent Fedotov) was last year. This also means that Fedotov is more than likely going to be headed to Lehigh Valley to play out the remainder of his contract. With Cal Petersen’s contract gone and no longer buried in Lehigh Valley, that opened up one spot in the minors. Meanwhile Eetu Makiniemi has also ended his brief stint with the Flyers organization and will play in Europe this coming season. So more than likely Fedotov will see his way to the minors.
As for Kolosov, the jury is still out on whether he’s heading back to the KHL or to play somewhere in Europe. This Vladar signing should essentially end any thoughts that Kolosov is going to be the Flyers goaltender of the future. The Flyers could simply keep Kolosov’s rights as he returns to the KHL, that way they own him should he turn into the second coming of Igor Shesterkin. But that seems unlikely.
Overall, Briere said the goaltending issue needed to be addressed at his year-end exit interviews. Today he took a step towards that. How Vladar works out with the Flyers remains to be seen. What’s clear is the Flyers goaltending situation is a little better now than it was 24 hours ago.
