On the heels of an improbably good breakout campaign, Philadelphia Flyers goalie Dan Vladar has earned himself a nice slice of national recognition from NHL pundits around the league.
Vladar, 28, was Mr. Right for the Flyers last season, always showing up when the stakes were the highest.
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The longtime Calgary Flames backup emerged as the Flyers’ starting goalie in his first year in Philadelphia, going 29-14-7 in 52 appearances and 51 starts to the tune of a 2.42 GAA and .906 save percentage.
While the raw stats aren’t all that impressive on their own, Vladar also finished 10th in the NHL in goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, with 13.8.
In the playoffs, Vladar was even better, stopping 8.5 goals above expected in just 10 games. Only Montreal’s Jakub Dobes (13.3) was better, and he played in nine more games for the Eastern Conference semifinalist Canadiens.
All in all, Vladar was able to parlay his stunning season into some deserved national recognition, impressively ranking as the eighth-best goalie in the entire NHL in the eyes of NHL Network producers and analysts on the heels of coming in sixth place in Vezina Trophy voting earlier in the summer.
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The 6-foot-5 Czech netminder ranked ahead of Minnesota’s Jesper Wallstedt and Dobes, but behind all the names you would come to expect to see on a list like this one: Jake Oettinger, Logan Thompson, Jeremy Swayman, Ilya Sorokin, Igor Shesterkin, Connor Hellebuyck, and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The question for Vladar and the Flyers going forward is whether or not the breakout star can repeat his performance next season and in the years beyond.
Before signing with the Flyers, Vladar had recorded a save percentage greater than .898 in a season just once, and had never started in 30 or more games in a single campaign.
If Vladar can put on an encore and more in Philadelphia, though, the Flyers will have a top-10 goalie in the NHL locked down for the foreseeable future.
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The Flyers tied down their newfound starting shot-stopper to a five-year, $27.5 million ($5.5 million AAV) contract extension back on July 1.
That kind of investment tells us that the Flyers certainly believe Vladar can do it again, and the national analysts and producers over at NHL Network seem to agree.
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