For as long as most fans can remember, the Philadelphia Flyers have had issues with the guy between the pipes. The real problem is that it hasn’t been just one guy. It’s been several.
Goaltending has been a consistent issue for Philadelphia since the Ron Hextall days…and no, I’m not talking about his GM tenure, but we’ll get to that too. The Orange and Black have seen all sorts of goalies since 2000.
From the late Roman Checkmanek, to Marty Biron, to the late Ray Emery. From a future two-time Vezina and Stanley Cup champion (just not with the Flyers), to some guy who seemed to be in outer space on and off the ice, to an underrated Steve Mason. All that before finally seeming to find a glimmer of hope in a young goalie drafted in the second round in 2016, when Hextall was GM.
That goalie was Carter Hart.
Two years later, in the fifth round, the Flyers drafted another goalie whose talent eventually skyrocketed him to the top of the depth chart, since Philadelphia had a consistent issue of finding a decent starter until Hart was ready.
Fast forward to the 2023-24 season: Hart and Sam Ersson were off to a pretty great start. In January, Hart was granted a leave of absence in the dawning of the Hockey Canada trial. Despite having a 12-8-3 record, Hart had a 2.80 GAA and a .906 save percentage, only to be followed by the shocking and disturbing news that was released.
Following Hart’s departure, Ersson became the go-to guy and was immediately thrown into the fire by then-head coach John Tortorella. Now, you can’t blame Tortorella for having the team’s entire season start to derail in January 2024, but at that point, there weren’t many other options. Ersson had only played in 12 games the year before, then suddenly went on a flurry of starts to try to save the Flyers’ season. Ersson was 23-19-7 with a 2.82 GAA and a .890 save percentage in 51 games with 49 starts.
No one blamed Ersson either, since he was literally thrown into a wild situation, going from playing here and there to give Hart a break to being the only reliable option for Tortorella. After the season and some rest, the Flyers appeared to have found an underrated gem of a goalie who was drafted 143rd overall in 2018. However, injuries and the workload became a bigger part of the story for Ersson, who played in 47 games with 45 starts, a record of 22-17-5, a 3.14 GAA, and a .883 save percentage.
Now onto this season, Ersson suddenly is having less of a workload under new head coach Rick Tocchet, appearing in just nine out of the 26 games in the 2025-26 season so far. On paper, the 26-year-old from Falun, Sweden, is having an okay season, with a record of 5-2-2 and a 2.97 GAA. But he has a .869 save percentage, and has certainly been underperforming.
There have been times where Ersson has not looked comfortable, let in pucks that should be saved, or has let in too many to give the Flyers a chance. That doesn’t mean he has been the worst goalie in the NHL; there have also been opportunities for Ersson to shine, and he has taken full advantage.
“I think he’s a very good goaltender,” Flyers analyst Brian Boucher said in an article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, “and I think the one way you can see that is watch him in shootouts. He’s a very good shootout goaltender. He’s got very good patience. He’s powerful, he’s got good flexibility. To me, that’s not easy.”
For instance, patience and flexibility have helped his game, and especially in shootouts. He’s currently 4-0 in shootouts this year and continues to make huge saves late in the game to either keep the game alive for the Flyers or to help shut the door.
So why has Tocchet only gone with Ersson nine times this year? It’s partially because of his struggles on the ice, but mainly because the other guy in goal has been that much better.
Dan Vladar, who signed a two-year, $6.7 million contract has been off to a stellar start for Philadelphia. The 28-year-old from Prague, Czechia, is 10-5-1 posting a 2.59 GAA and a .906 save percentage in 16 games.
Vladar, who was in Calgary for four seasons before joining Philadelphia, was leading the way until Dustin Wolf came along. Vladar will more than likely just be a “stopgap” type of goalie for the Flyers until they find their next goalie who can take the reins and run with it. That could be Yegor Zavragin, currently playing in the KHL, or Carson Bjarnason, playing with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms in his first pro season.
Until then, the Flyers have Ersson and Vladar. Will these netminders lead the Flyers to the playoffs for the first time since 2019-20, or will the flame sizzle out on the position that Philadelphia has greatly struggled with, leading to more changes between the pipes?