MoneyPuck<\/a>, Ersson has the sixth-worst GSAX in the league at -4.6, while Vladar ranks 15th at 6.1. When factoring in how much they have played, Ersson drops down to the fourth-lowest GSAX\/60 at -0.72, with Vladar at 24 due to some goalies who haven\u2019t played as much.<\/p>\nUnfortunately, this isn\u2019t anything new for Ersson.<\/p>\n
Last season, Ersson was dead last with -19.9 GSAX, allowing nearly 20 more goals than expected. Vladar, while playing in a backup role and getting the harder starts due to the Flames insulating Dustin Wolf, had a solid 0.9 GSAX, good for 44th overall. That\u2019s all you can really ask out of your goalie, to save the goals that are expected. Anything else is gravy \u2014 at least in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
Even going back two seasons, Ersson had a -4.8 GSAX, which was at least better than three other Flyers netminders, but still ranked 24th worst in the league.<\/p>\n
The Swedish netminder might simply be showing us what he is. He\u2019s 26 years old now, and some goalies don\u2019t hit their peak until their late-20s, but it could be getting late early in Philadelphia for Ersson.<\/p>\n
While Ersson certainly isn\u2019t at the level of a starting goalie, he may be able to hold his own as a backup. He typically performs better when he\u2019s a bit rested, but the Flyers don\u2019t really have the luxury of playing him as a true backup.<\/p>\n
Can Vladar be a true starter for Flyers?<\/p>\n
Goaltending tandems are the present and future in the NHL. Vladar was brought in to compete for the starter\u2019s job, and he\u2019s won it, but asking him to start more than 40 games might be a bit much.<\/p>\n
Last season was the first time that Vladar cracked 30 NHL games in a season, starting 29 and coming in relief once. Prior to that, he started 19, 23, and 19 games in his first three years in Calgary.<\/p>\n
Even when you factor in playoff starts and combine leagues, Vladar hasn\u2019t played in more than 30 games in a season since seeing 32 total games with the Providence Bruins in the 2018-19 season. Asking him to go from 30 games to 40 or even 45 or 50 might see him revert to the .895 SV% goalie that he was entering this season \u2014 and that would still be better than Ersson\u2019s career .886 SV%!<\/p>\n
Ersson was tasked with bridging the gap for the Flyers over the last few seasons while the team was in the early stages of the rebuild. But if they\u2019re ready to take the next step, they might need to look for outside help in net.<\/p>\n
Could Flyers trade for a goalie?<\/p>\n
Trading for a goalie certainly wasn\u2019t on Danny Briere\u2019s to-do list entering the season. Ersson and Vladar can split starts, and Kolosov is capable enough of coming up to be the backup or for a spot start here and there.<\/p>\n
But what if the Flyers are still in the playoffs when the calendar flips to 2026? Or at the Olympic break? Or what if Ersson\u2019s injuries crop up again on top of that?<\/p>\n
Despite not really having great options in net, the Flyers do have their four goalies set at the NHL and AHL level. Kolosov and Carson Bjarnasson are splitting time for the Phantoms, and there\u2019s no need to add a third goalie into the mix.<\/p>\n
The only situation we could see where the Flyers trade for a goalie is if they\u2019re in playoff contention in the weeks or months leading up to the deadline and Ersson gets hurt. Trading for a veteran goalie to join Vladar\u2019s tandem likely wouldn\u2019t cost that much and would keep the Flyers in the hunt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stop us if you\u2019ve heard this before, but the Philadelphia Flyers have a goaltending problem. Coming into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-300414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}