There’s never a dull moment when talking about the state of the Flyers goaltending. Since Carter Hart’s reckoning day finally came, it leaves the team with more questions than answers at a position it had looked as though they were stable. As the spotlight shifts back to the crease, let’s take stock of what exactly the Flyers have in net.
The NHL starter position will be held by Sam Ersson. He’s been groomed for the role for the last few seasons, and the crease is all his with Hart gone. Whether he can handle the workload of a starter is still up for debate, but it’ll be a trial by fire. It’s probably best the Flyers find someone who doesn’t completely suck to tandem him with, and Cal Petersen (who’s the only other goalie under contract in 2024-25) just isn’t up to the job.
Speaking of Petersen, he’s come even worse than advertised and he’s still got one year left on his current contract at a whopping $5 million cap hit. He’s played five NHL games this season posting a 3.90 goals against average and .864 save percentage, which is only slightly worse than his AHL stat line of 3.26 GAA and .890 SV% in 15 appearances.
It’s costs the Flyers $3.85 million in dead cap to bury him in the AHL. Luckily though, his buyout is relatively painless. It only costs $1 million to buy Petersen out in 2024-25 and $2 million in 2025-26. That means the Flyers could buy him out, sign a cheap backup NHL goalie AND add a league minimum third stringer for the cost that it would take just to bury Petersen.
The Flyers recalled Felix Sandstrom, who spent the first six weeks of the season on the main roster but didn’t dress in a game, to replace Petersen after his disastrous effort against the Penguins last week. Sandstrom played 20 NHL games last season posting a 3.72 GAA and .880 SV%. Even last year, it’s clear he didn’t have the trust of Tortorella, as he played very infrequently, only getting to 20 games thanks to two separate injuries to Hart.
Sandstrom has posted a 3.23 GAA and .882 SV% in 20 AHL games. While those are relatively pedestrian numbers, he hasn’t been persistently bad, rather turning in wildly inconsistent performances on a struggling team.
So in the short term, he should be better than Petersen for the few remaining spot starts during the 2023-24 season, and quite frankly it’d be difficult to be worse. Sandstrom is a unrestricted free agent at season’s end, and with the way the organization has treated him the last few seasons, it’s highly unlikely he re-signs, even if he plays great the remainder of the season.
Unfortunately for the Flyers, it’s a rough offseason in the backup goaltender market. It’s full of aging players or random dudes. There isn’t really a case of that perfect backup available in the 2024 offseason. Ironically enough, old friend Anthony Stolarz, who is currently a Florida Panther, may be the best available backup on the market. He turned 30 in January and is currently rocking a 2.02 GAA and .924 SV% in 19 games.
In the immediate future, all eyes turn towards 22-year-old Alexei Kolosov, who is expected to make the jump to North America next season and more than likely join the Phantoms. He’s currently ranked 18th in goals against average (2.40) and 39th in save percentage (.907) in the KHL, though just copy and pasting those stats over to the NHL (which isn’t necessarily how this works) would mean he’s easily posting better numbers than than both Sandstrom, Petersen and Ersson.
Kolosov (hopefully) making the jump to North America is a big sigh of relief when it comes to the long-term outlook of the franchise, but he can’t (and won’t) be penciled into the 2024-25 opening night lineup yet. He’s going to take at least a year to find his game at the AHL level before he gets a real NHL look. It means Ersson needs to hold down the fort, and the front office is responsible for finding a legitimate backup to tandem with the 24-year-old.
It sucks they need to pour money into the position, but it’s malpractice to run it back with Cal Petersen for one more year. And if the organization is serious about touting their winning ways, it’s just a cost they’re going to have to deal with to be competitive.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: NHL.com / nbcsports.com / Inquirer.com
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