When he was signed last season, nobody could’ve fathomed how big of an impact Dan Vladar had on the Flyers. Originally considered to be competition for Sam Ersson, Vladar worked his way into a long-term extension while also making Ersson quite disposable. He was remarkable in year one. Now, that year is over and done with, and the second year is all that matters.
Over their history there have been 67 Flyer goaltenders. But there have only been a select few to have essentially been the proverbial number one in their first two full seasons with the club. While not going back to the start of the franchise, we’re going to take a look at roughly the last three decades, and how these seven netminders looked in the second year of the tenure with Philadelphia. The criteria was narrowed quite a bit: the goalie had to have played at least 40 games both seasons (or a sizeable chunk of a shortened season) in order to fit the bill. Anything less either season would’ve put them in a tandem or support role most likely.
So, in chronological order, we look at seven goaltenders in the last three decades. And see how they made out in the second year with Philadelphia.
John Vanbiesbrouck
Over 20 seasons, John Vanbiesbrouck was a workhorse. Not quite to the extent of a Martin Brodeur, but pretty darn close. In 10 of those seasons, he averaged over 40 or more games. From 1983-84 to 2001-02 his lowest amount of appearances was 37, and that was in the 48-game lockout year of 1994-95. He was consistent and solid. So, when the Flyers signed Vanbiesbrouck to a two-year deal, they thought their goaltending issues were, for a short time, answered.
Vanbiesbrouck was steady throughout the season, appearing in 62 games and starting 61. Ron Hextall picked up the slack in a backup role as the Flyers went through a season of soap operas in 1998-99, from going 12 games without a win, to seeing Eric Lindros suffering a collapsed lung. The Flyers ended up second in the Atlantic, but was only the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, which meant a first-round matchup against Toronto. The Flyers lost the opening round in six games, through no fault of Vanbiesbrouck despite giving up one or two leaky goals. In two wins, Philadelphia scored eight goals. In the four times they lost to Toronto, the Leafs scrounged up a measly seven goals (three 2-1 losses and a 1-0 loss).
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 1998-99 | 62 | 61 | 27 | 18 | 15 | .902 | 2.18 | 32 | 17 | -7.7 |
| 1999-00 | 50 | 49 | 25 | 15 | 9 | .906 | 2.20 | 29 | 7 | 1.3 |
Perhaps more puzzling was the following year. As you can see above, the numbers mirrored a lot of what Vanbiesbrouck put up in his first year with Philadelphia. His workload was a bit smaller, but he curtailed the really bad starts (defined as a save percentage of .850 or lower), while improving on his save percentage. The numbers looked quite good, but Philadelphia opted to go with Brian Boucher in the playoffs. Boucher played every game as Philadelphia took the Devils to seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals, with Game 7 marred by the infamous Scott Stevens hit on Eric Lindros. Vanbiesbrouck never seemed to win the trust of the organization after losing to Toronto. He was traded in the offseason.
Roman Cechmanek
A sixth-round pick by Philadelphia in the 2000 draft, Roman Cechmanek wasn’t a spring chicken by the time he arrived with the Flyers. After John Vanbiesbrouck was sent packing, Brian Boucher was thought to be the team’s number one goalie. But Boucher stumbled out of the gate, and Cechmanek had other ideas. He won the starter’s job and had a remarkable first season, ending up fourth in the voting for the Hart Trophy and second for the Vezina. He was great during the regular season, but the team (who was without Lindros all season awaiting a trade, along with John LeClair out for 66 games) struggled against Buffalo in the opening round before being blown out in an ugly 8-0 loss on the road that ended the season.
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 2000-01 | 59 | 57 | 35 | 15 | 6 | .921 | 2.01 | 38 | 10 | 26.6 |
| 2001-02 | 46 | 43 | 24 | 13 | 6 | .921 | 2.05 | 27 | 4 | 15.3 |
The following year, Cechmanek’s workload was a little less, but the numbers were almost identical across the board. He saw the really bad starts decline to just four in 43 starts. And he saw a decline in goals saved above average, although the number (15.3) is still quite strong. Unfortunately, Cechmanek’s second season ended in sad fashion. Philadelphia played Ottawa and scored two goals in their first round matchup. Even more incredible was it was not a sweep, as Cechmanek shutout the Senators in the opening game, a 1-0 overtime win. But by Game 3, Cechmanek saw the Flyers doing nothing offensively. After Ottawa made it 3-0 in Game 4, Cechmanek skated to center ice and made a gesture to the Flyers bench, clearly frustrated. He was replaced by Boucher who played Game 5.
Cechmanek played one more year in Philadelphia that saw him win the Jennings Trophy, but after his third year with the Flyers he was traded to the Kings for a second-round pick. It was one of the more impressive three-year runs for a goaltender in franchise history, yet saw just one playoff series win over that time.
Antero Niittymaki
Finnish goalie Antero Niittymaki played three games in 2003-04, but never really established himself until two years later due to the 2004-05 lockout. In 2005-06, Niittymaki was good but not great, being far different than Cechmanek was in his first two years with a far worse goals-against average and a rather bad save percentage. Despite that, Philadelphia ended up with a 101-point season but saw them up against Buffalo in the first round. And Sabres forward Danny Briere and his teammates surgically picked apart Philadelphia, trouncing them 7-1 in Game 6 as Robert Esche was the goaltender for most of the first round, with Niittymake getting just 73 minutes of ice time: 40 minutes (opening two periods) of an 8-2 loss in Game 2 and the first half of Game 6.
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 2005-06 | 46 | 42 | 23 | 15 | 6 | .895 | 2.97 | 19 | 7 | -8.0 |
| 2006-07 | 52 | 46 | 9 | 29 | 9 | .894 | 3.38 | 19 | 7 | -17.5 |
Niittymaki never really had a chance to redeem himself after that as the Flyers plummeted down the standings, ending up with the worst record in the league and dropping 45 points over the previous season. It was a disaster, with a lot of franchise records being established for all the wrong reasons. Despite the horrid season, Niittymaki had the same number of quality starts (and bad starts) over the 2005-06 year. His goals-against average and his goals saved above average numbers ballooned, but the team sucked from start to finish.
Martin Biron
Martin Biron spent the first nine seasons of his career in Buffalo. By the end of his tenure, the Sabres were keen on moving on with newcomer Ryan Miller emerging into a strong keeper. Biron was moved during the 2007 trade deadline to the Flyers for a second-round pick. He played 16 games with the Flyers, but didn’t leave a stellar first impression. He saved that for his first full season with Philadelphia, starting 59 games, having a .918 save percentage, five shutouts and an impressive 2.59 save percentage. He was also in for all 17 playoff games as Philadelphia made it to the Eastern Conference Final, losing in five to Pittsburgh.
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 2007-08 | 62 | 59 | 30 | 20 | 9 | .918 | 2.59 | 33 | 8 | 16.4 |
| 2008-09 | 55 | 53 | 29 | 19 | 5 | .915 | 2.76 | 29 | 7 | 11.2 |
In his second full season, and playing for what looked to be a contract extension with the Flyers, Biron essentially looked similar in year two as he did in his first year with Philadelphia. He started slightly fewer games, had 10 more wins than losses, and kept the really bad starts to a minimum. The goals-against average took a bump up slightly, and the goals saved above average was down somewhat, but overall Biron delivered another quality season. Philadelphia struggled a bit in April, and Biron gave up a minimum of three goals in five of the six playoff games.
Whether the sour taste of the first-round playoff exit irked Ed Snider and company was unclear. What was clear was the Flyers moved away from Biron, leaving him out in the cold as they signed Brian Boucher and Ray Emery, forming the new tandem. Biron eventually signed with the Islanders for a year before closing out his career with a decent run with the Rangers.
Sergei Bobrovsky
We all know how this played out, and how Bobrovsky was given the relatively short end of the stick in Philadelphia before venturing off to Columbus and establishing himself as one of the better, durable goaltenders in the last decade. Nonetheless, he got his start in Philadelphia, and put up a very credible rookie season back in 2010-11, months after the Flyers lost to Patrick Kane’s overtime goal. Bobrovsky started 52 games as a rookie that season, and fared quite well, posting a great save percentage (.915) and a very strong goals-against average. Even more impressively, in those 52 starts, he only had six really bad ones. That’s an incredible stat for a then 22-year-old goaltender just getting used to the rigors of the NHL.
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 2010-11 | 54 | 52 | 28 | 13 | 8 | .915 | 2.59 | 34 | 6 | 3.0 |
| 2011-12 | 29 | 25 | 14 | 10 | 2 | .899 | 3.02 | 11 | 5 | -11.5 |
Unfortunately, Bobrovsky’s play in the regular season didn’t give him any leeway with coach Peter Laviolette. Giving up one goal in the opening game against Buffalo in round one wasn’t a cause for concern. In Game 2 he gave up three goals on the first seven shots and was pulled. He never saw any other action until Game 4 of round two against the Bruins, a 5-1 loss that ended the season. And pretty much Bobrovsky’s career in Philadelphia. His second year arrived after a whirlwind of changes: Mike Richards and Jeff Carter were gone, and goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov was signed to a nine-year deal. Bobrovsky played 29 games in 2011-12, and his confidence was shot, knowing he’d be the backup for the Flyers for the future if he stuck around.
Bobrovsky got 25 starts, but as shown above, the confidence was pretty much gone. He played just over 36 minutes in the 2012 playoffs over two rounds, and that came in garbage time as the Penguins trounced the Flyers 10-3 in Game 4 of the opening round, a game Pittsburgh needed to stay alive. The Flyers lost in the second round to New Jersey, and Bobrovsky was sent to Columbus in June for a second-round and two fourth-round picks. Of course hindsight is 20/20, but Bobrovsky was the one who got away from the Flyers.
Ilya Bryzgalov
The story goes Ed Snider used an expletive to his underlings in order to stress the need for a goaltender after the 2011 playoffs. The aforementioned wheeling and dealing resulted in Bryzgalov arriving. The goaltending issues were over. Happy days were here again. Then Bryzgalov began playing for the Flyers. And a lot of people ended up getting mad. In Bryzgalov’s first year, he was okay. Not spectacular, just good more often than not. His numbers weren’t going to win him any awards, but his save percentage wasn’t too bad. Nor was the fact he earned the Flyers points in over two-thirds of his starts. One nagging statistic, and one that would prove to be his (and the team’s ) Achilles’ heel was the goals saved above average. He wasn’t making the key stop at the key time. And a lot of times he wasn’t making the simple stop at any time. He did end up with six shutouts in the regular season, but couldn’t drag his team kicking and screaming beyond the Devils in round two.
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 2011-12 | 59 | 57 | 33 | 16 | 7 | .909 | 2.48 | 32 | 14 | -6.6 |
| 2012-13 | 40 | 40 | 19 | 17 | 3 | .900 | 2.79 | 20 | 10 | -13.1 |
In his second year, with more doubters emerging, Brygalov fell off the rails. He started 40 games, and barely kept his head over .500 in terms of winning percentage. The save percentage declined somewhat, and the goals-against average went up. His goals saved above average stat was -13.1, a roughly 30 point drop from just two seasons prior in Phoenix. He wasn’t the main reason why the Flyers missed the playoffs in the lockout-shortened season, but he was a big part of why. Just two years into the nine-year contract, Philadelphia used one of their compliance buyouts to send Bryzgalov off somewhere else. This coming season will mark the final year that he is on the books for the organization, with one more payment on July 1, 2027 being the end of the Ilya Bryzgalov chapter in Flyers history. Thankfully.
Steve Mason
In April 2013, the Flyers traded goalies, sending Michael Leighton and a third-round pick to Columbus in exchange for Steve Mason. At the time nobody really thought it was much of a swap, as Leighton had his share of troubles and Mason wasn’t exactly lighting things up with the Blue Jackets in his time there. Mason made the most of his opportunity in Philadelphia, and put together some very fine games over his first two seasons with the Flyers. In the first year, any speculation that the job wasn’t his was put on the back burner: 60 starts, and 35 quality starts in those contests. He was 15 games over .500, and registered a strong. 917 save percentage, lights out for a club that had its share of questionable goaltending in the previous seasons.
| Year | Games | Starts | Wins | Losses | Ties | Save % | GAA | Quality Starts | Really Bad Starts | Goals Saved Above Avg |
| 2013-14 | 61 | 60 | 33 | 18 | 7 | .917 | 2.50 | 35 | 9 | 5.9 |
| 2014-15 | 51 | 48 | 18 | 18 | 11 | .928 | 2.25 | 29 | 4 | 19.2 |
Sadly, in the dying days of the regular season, in a game against the Pens, Pittsburgh forward Jayson Megna ran defenseman Andrew MacDonald into Mason, knocking him out of the game with an upper-body injury (concussion most likely). He also didn’t start the opening three games of round one before returning for the last four games against the Rangers. The Flyers lost Game 7 2-1.
The following year, Mason’s numbers improved on his first year, although the wins matched the losses. His save percentage rose to a fantastic .928, and he had just four really bad starts out of 48. The losses weren’t completely the fault of Mason, as Philadelphia scored just 215 goals all season. The lack of production proved to be fatal as the team missed the playoffs in what would be a series of alternating years they made then missed the postseason. The goalie never recaptured his impressive first two years in the subsequent two seasons, and was let go at the end of his four-year deal.
