One of the major storylines to follow heading into the 2024-25 Philadelphia Flyers’ season is the state of the goaltending. The duo of 24-year-old Sam Ersson and 27-year-old Ivan Fedotov are each under contract for two more seasons and are expected to be the opening night tandem.
The duo had wildly inconsistent results down the stretch for the Flyers, and while it’s assumed they both have more to give and can consistently play at a high level, that can’t be flat out assumed either. Their performance will more than likely be the make-or-break factor for the entire team during the 2024-25 campaign.
Sam Ersson
John Tortorella mentioned in one of his mid-season pressers that the team was expecting Carter Hart to go away and that he had penciled Ersson in for 18-22 starts when the season began. Hart played a vast majority of the games for the first few months of the season before December rolled around and a much more even split took place before Hart’s departure in mid-January.
Now, 18-22 starts for Ersson seemed like a fairly low projection even if Hart made it through the season, given the latter’s career high is only 55 games played. But the intent was seemingly there from the organization to work Ersson in to the league rather than throw him directly into the deep end and it’s not necessarily their fault for the way things went down.
Fast forward to season’s end and Sam Ersson suited up for 51 games during the 2023-24 campaign. He sported a 2.82 goals against average and .890 save percentage with 23 wins. And if we’re being honest, those numbers are much less ugly than expected to be before looking it up.
The thing about Ersson is that he has always worked best in short doses, and his longevity has been challenged during both of his full seasons in North America.
In 2022-23 with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Ersson played 42 games and was near bulletproof through December and January but became less reliable as the season went on and posted a sub-.900 save percentage in 11 of his final 17 games from mid-February on. It’s a fact that Ersson’s best stretch of the 2023-24 season came from late November to mid-January when he was playing once every 7-10 days. He posted 11 wins, two shutouts and a save percentage well above .900 in 15 games from November 10 to January 18.
He managed just 12 wins in 32 games since Hart’s arrest and he (along with Cal Petersen, Felix Sandstrom and Ivan Fedotov) had the worst collective save percentage in the league in that time. When the responsibility of a starter fell on his shoulders he didn’t rise to the occasion.
In a sense, it could be a positive thing someone like Fedotov is here and there’s expected to be a 50/50 spilt in 2024-25, or at least close to it while both goaltenders get comfortable at the NHL level. But Fedotov doesn’t come without questions of his own.
Ivan Fedotov
27-year-old Russian goalie Ivan Fedotov finally made the unlikely jump to North America late in the 2023-24 season to much fanfare but less-than-stellar results. He posted a .811 SV% and 4.95 GAA in three appearances during the team’s collapse late in the season.
While Fedotov’s pedigree speaks for itself at the KHL level (Gagarin Cup winner, Goaltender of the Year Finalist, consistently one of the best statistically), there’s always questions when foreign players attempt to transition to the NHL game. Especially for an older player like Fedotov and one that has only played 52 games of hockey since January of 2022.
It’s ok to disregard his results at the end of 2023-24. Joining a team in mid-tailspin with a battered tandem partner in Sam Ersson was probably the worst conditions he could’ve started in. With a full preseason to adapt and (hopefully) a team that isn’t at it’s dirt worst, he should at least be a serviceable 1B for Ersson and potentially a full-time starter at best.
But they need to at least factor in the outcome that he may just not be the guy they were hoping he was. Due to circumstances outside of their control they couldn’t manage to ride the wave Fedotov could’ve been had it not been for Russian interference two years ago. It’s a worst case scenario for sure, but one that could be a possibility.
Conclusion
While there’s plenty of pop and circumstance around the pair of Flyers’ goalies, they have quite a bit to prove at the NHL level. Ersson has shown flashes of brilliance during is career and at one point not all that long ago Fedotov was considered one of the best goalies in the world.
The Flyers’ ideology under John Tortorella has been team defense. He and Brad Shaw have done a very good job turning a rather mediocre group of defensemen into capable players and they’ve very clearly favored forwards with a knack for defense. When the system works, it can go a long way to helping even the most mediocre goalie to a decent performance. When it doesn’t (or more specifically, when it stops working) then it’s up to the goalie to do the heavy lifting and that’s what we saw towards the end of the campaign.
The capabilities of the goalies has stayed an under-the-radar concern since the season came to an end. And maybe it’s an all for naught concern. The pedigree between the two is certainly there, and when the team in front of them can play at their best they should have a fighting chance to not entirely suck. Even if it comes in the form of a 50/50 split, or in Tortorella’s case, riding the hot hand there should be some combination of ways to deploy Fedotov and Ersson as to maximize their individual value, and thus giving the team a fighting chance.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit: Getty Images
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