Steve Mason is having an unreal season, and most of us think he’ll grab the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the Philadelphia Flyers team MVP for 2014-15. It couldn’t be more true that the Flyers are wasting a great year by Mason — the best of his career, including his rookie year in which he won the Calder Trophy.
But this isn’t just a good year for Mason. It’s one of the best seasons a goaltender has ever put together in a Philadelphia Flyers uniform.
Look at this list of the 10 best seasons by a goaltender in Flyers history, as determined by save percentage. We’ve removed seasons in which said goaltender only played a handful of games or wasn’t the clear starter for the majority of the season.
| Year | Goalie | GP | Min | GA | GAA | W | L | T | OTL | SO | Shot | Pct |
| 1973-74 | Bernie Parent | 73 | 4314 | 136 | 1.89 | 47 | 13 | 12 | 12 | 2038 | 0.933 | |
| 1967-68 | Doug Favell | 37 | 2192 | 83 | 2.27 | 15 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 1211 | 0.931 | |
| 2014-15 | Steve Mason | 50 | 2826 | 105 | 2.23 | 18 | 17 | 0 | 11 | 3 | 1468 | 0.928 |
| 2002-03 | Roman Cechmanek | 58 | 3350 | 102 | 1.83 | 33 | 15 | 10 | 6 | 1374 | 0.926 | |
| 1967-68 | Bernie Parent | 38 | 2248 | 93 | 2.48 | 16 | 17 | 5 | 4 | 1255 | 0.926 | |
| 1968-69 | Bernie Parent | 58 | 3365 | 151 | 2.69 | 17 | 23 | 16 | 1 | 1966 | 0.923 | |
| 2001-02 | Roman Cechmanek | 46 | 2603 | 89 | 2.05 | 24 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 1131 | 0.921 | |
| 2000-01 | Roman Cechmanek | 59 | 3431 | 115 | 2.01 | 35 | 15 | 6 | 10 | 1464 | 0.921 | |
| 1969-70 | Bernie Parent | 62 | 3680 | 171 | 2.79 | 13 | 29 | 20 | 3 | 2125 | 0.920 | |
| 1974-75 | Bernie Parent | 68 | 4041 | 137 | 2.03 | 44 | 14 | 9 | 12 | 1691 | 0.919 |
A couple things:
- Was Bernie Parent amazing at hockey or what? My lord.
- Roman Cechmanek was also quite good … always kind of amazing that he decided not to come back to North America after the 2004 lockout. (He owns a brewery in his native Czech Republic now.)
- I debated putting Doug Favell’s 1967-68 season on the list, but he basically split time evenly with Parent that season — the Flyers’ first season ever. Parent played 38 games and Favell played 37 … and both seasons are in the top 10 in Flyers’ history. Pretty cool./
And for balance, here are the 10 worst seasons by a goalie in Flyers history. Same criteria: goalie had to play most of nearly most of the team’s games that year. (Of course, the 1980s were a totally different era so this probably isn’t a fair comparison. In fact, many of the season’s below could be considered good by standards of that era.)
| Year | Goalie | GP | Min | GA | GAA | W | L | T | OTL | SO | Shot | Pct |
| 1988-89 | Ron Hextall | 64 | 3756 | 202 | 3.23 | 30 | 28 | 6 | 0 | 1860 | 0.891 | |
| 1982-83 | Pelle Lindbergh | 40 | 2334 | 116 | 2.98 | 23 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 1060 | 0.891 | |
| 1994-95 | Ron Hextall | 31 | 1824 | 88 | 2.89 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 801 | 0.890 | |
| 1983-84 | Bob Froese | 48 | 2863 | 150 | 3.14 | 28 | 13 | 7 | 2 | 1326 | 0.887 | |
| 1987-88 | Ron Hextall | 62 | 3561 | 208 | 3.5 | 30 | 22 | 7 | 0 | 1817 | 0.886 | |
| 1991-92 | Ron Hextall | 45 | 2668 | 151 | 3.4 | 16 | 21 | 6 | 3 | 1294 | 0.883 | |
| 1979-80 | Phil Myre | 41 | 2367 | 141 | 3.57 | 18 | 7 | 15 | 0 | 1127 | 0.875 | |
| 1981-82 | Pete Peeters | 44 | 2591 | 160 | 3.71 | 23 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 1241 | 0.871 | |
| 1978-79 | Wayne Stephenson | 40 | 2187 | 122 | 3.35 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 944 | 0.871 | |
| 1990-91 | Ken Wregget | 30 | 1484 | 88 | 3.56 | 10 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 660 | 0.867 |
h/t Snevik in the BSH comments. help from FlyersHistory.com and Hockey Reference
