Heading into this season, it seemed clear that the Flyers were once again entering the year without an out-and-out starting goaltender to play the majority of the games. Samuel Ersson returned to take over his role as the “1B” sort of starter who would more than likely not play more than 45 games, Ivan Fedotov was traded to Columbus, and Aleksei Kolosov was rightfully sent to Lehigh Valley in order to try and rebuild his game after a turbulent 2024-25.
That all cleared the way for Dan Vladar, the Flyers’ only goaltending signing of the offseason, to play a sizable role alongside Ersson in taking on a bulk of the NHL game time. Whether it was 25 games or 35, Vladar was always going to have a big part in makeup of this year’s tandem.
But throughout the team’s first six games, the results from the 28-year old Czech netminder have been better than even the optimistic fan could have expected. Vladar has started four of the team’s first six games, and in that time has posted a sterling 1.75 goals against average, to go alongside a .929 save percentage and 3-1 record in his starts. He has looked calm, in control, and thus far able to avoid allowing those backbreaking weak goals that have broken the Flyers countless times over the last few years.
Midway through the first period of the Flyers 5-2 win against the Kraken on October 20th, Vladar made two saves on shorthanded breakaways that both came on the same Flyers power play. The Flyers would later score on that mad advantage, and used that to fuel a great second and third period that pushed them to a win. The only two pucks that beat Vladar that night came off of a personal puckhandling gaffe, and a deflection in front of him, everything else was stopped comfortably, including a clean third period to seal the deal.
Vladar currently ranks 4th in the NHL in goals against average, and 9th in save percentage. While it is definitely a small sample size, nobody was expecting Vladar to approach that sort of excellence at any point in his Flyers tenure, let alone right out of the gate. If that option was on the table, the Flyers wouldn’t have been able to get him for two years at 3.35 million dollars.
His goals saved above expected only sits at 2.4, which is still good for 16th league wide, but that more so reflects the Flyers ability to limit a bevy of elite chances from dangerous spots on the ice. Vladar is making the saves that are expected of him, and that’s all that the team has really needed. If they got this level of goaltending for even spurts of last year, they were undoubtedly a playoff team in a weak Metro division.
And speaking of last season’s goaltending, this leaves Samuel Ersson in an interesting position, seemingly having his role snatched away without really doing anything to lose it. In his two games, Ersson has put up a 3.88 GAA and a .849 SV%. Those stats are a little misleading since Ersson had his only two games come against two really high powered offenses in Carolina and Winnipeg, but there is no doubt that he has been the second-best goalie. Instead of Ersson taking the lion’s share of starts, it looks as if Vladar is going to, at least for the time being, be the de-facto starting goaltender.
Ersson had the inside track due to his past history in Philadelphia, but he’s never had a season where he posted a .900 save percentage. In his last two seasons playing starter minutes, Ersson has struggled with consistency and managing his workload. He wasn’t the problem on those teams, but he was far from the solution. Nothing is promised to Ersson and if Vladar keeps playing like this, it’ll be hard for a coach like Rick Tocchet, who prioritizes winning every night, to take him out.
