Preseason Preview: 2016/17 Philadelphia Flyers Part III

Goaltenders:

Oh a topic that Philly hockey fans love to comment on, the goalies... I know my manager Vince Massimini is reading this somewhere right now busting on my friend Paul Barrett since Paul's a goalie and also a Steve Mason fanboy. Vince, I know that you hate every goalie that's ever existed and you think they all suck, but bear with me! 

Over the last 20 years, the Flyers haven't had a consistent and reliable goaltender since Ron Hextall's return during the 1997 Cup run against Detroit. Over those last 20 years, we've seen the following goalies suit up in orange and black: John Vanbiesbrouck, Brian Boucher (Numerous times), Roman Checkmanek, Maxime Ouellet, Neil Little, Robert Esche, Jeff Hackett, Sean Burke, Martin Biron, Antero Niittymaki, Ray Emery, Johan Backlund, Jeremy Duchesne, Michael Leighton, Sergie Bobrovsky, Ilya Bryzgalov, and most recently the trio of goalies including Steve Mason, Michal Neuvirth and youngster Anthony Stolarz.  Out of all of the names listed above, there's 4, maybe 5 goalies that had potential to be "the answer" for Philly and never got it going. But now we're left with a problem that most other teams in the NHL don't have, we have one of the better goaltending combinations in the league. Instead of going on a full blown rant that touches every single stat, every topic to possibly discuss and every little flaw, I'm just going to give my opinions one-by-one for the 3 current goalies with the Flyers.

Flyers starting goaltender Steve Mason, courtesy sonsofpenn.com

Let's kick things off the the Flyers "starting" goalie, Steve Mason. Before people start bashing him about his inconsistency throughout his career, remember that we traded Michael Leighton for him. Yes, Michael Leighton, who at that point was buried in the AHL the 3 previous seasons and was the backup to the team the year he got dished out. While there is no denying that Mason is inconsistent at times, you also can't take away that he's showed over the last handful of years with the Flyers that he can be one of the best goalies in the league when he's on his game. Mason had a phenomenal rookie year with Columbus, but after the 2009 season it looked like he was on the verge of losing any credibility he built up that season. Once he arrived for the Flyers, he turned his career around. Joining the team during the lockout shortened season where the Flyers missed the Playoffs and had to deal with the Bryzgalov situation, Mason was on the outside looking in until the start of training camp. During Mason's first full season with the team, he was exactly who they wanted him to be, a steady and reliable goalie that could make the saves that needed to be made, and come up big during the divisional games against their rivals. We all know that Mason is good for one soft goal a game, and that's the reason why I will never consider him an elite goaltender in this league. But at the same time, the play by Steve Mason before he got hurt down the stretch was essentially the reason with Philly got into the 2014 Playoffs, and the reason the team even got to 7 games against the Rangers is because of how he played in games 4-6, shutting the door and keeping the Flyers in every game. The 2015 season wasn't what the team had in mind, and there wasn't any real highlights during the year, and the biggest story during the season was the fact that the Flyers lost a league high 18 games in OT or a shootout. The only real takeaway from that season was it was the first year that GM Ron Hextall's "plan" was starting to take shape. We fast forward one season to the 2015-16 year, and that was a year where the Flyers could rely on not one, but two starting-caliber goalies in the league. Mason had his stretches of playing extremely well, but a majority of the season hurt, combined with his mediocre play landed him on the bench more so than not. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't playing terrible. If you look at teams like Edmonton, Arizona, and Toronto that's where the term "terrible goaltending" would come into play. Although Mason was still considered that starter during the regular season, and during the Playoffs, there's no denying that this next man was the real #1 for the Flyers after showing just how good he can be...

Flyers goaltender Michal Neuvirth, courtesy of tsn.ca

Michal Neuvirth was quite possibly the biggest surprise in the entire NHL last season, let alone the Flyers. Coming in and posting shutouts in his first 3 wins in the orange and black is something that's hard to do. What's even harder is to win over almost every Flyers fan in the region, and that was also something he was able to do during the 15-16 season. Neuvirth never complained about playing time, never complained about his teammates, the Philly media, the brand of hot dog they were selling at the Wells Fargo Center, he just simply went out and played hockey whenever it was his time to man the net. Neuvirth was consistent the entire year, was a low-risk high-reward signing that payed dividends for the Flyers and now he has to do the exact same thing the year since he's entering the final year in his contract. All Neuvirth has to do is go out and play well in net, and he may turn into the Flyers starting goalie. Over the last 6 months, he's already faced a work load that not most goalies can see. While Steve Mason has the durability to play x-amount of games in a row (like he did when Neuvirth was hurt last year) Neuvirth's cool and calm approach had gotten him to a 6th game against the President Trophy winning Washington Capitals (after coming into the series being down 3 games and winning games 4 AND 5) and also got him the starting job for his team at this years World Cup of Hockey. Neuvirth has seen one of the highest scoring teams in the NHL, the worlds best players over a 2 week tournament, and the most important thing he's seen is that he has the support of the Flyers fans going into this season. I personally think the Neuvirth is the best goalie the Flyers have and I think they'll be foolish if they don't use him in the starting role this year.

Flyers/Phantoms goalie Anthony Stolarz, courtesy of phantomshockey.com

The most intriguing piece to the Flyers goaltending situation this year is Anthony Stolarz. Stolarz was drafted from the London Knights, and once he arrived with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms he was immediately considered their starter. While his NHL experience is still low, he has been in the minors enough and gone through enough development where I think he may be NHL ready, but only for a backup role at this point in his career. Standing at 6'6" at 22 years of age, Stolarz has the size and potential to be an elite goalie in the NHL. A career 2.94 GAA and a .911 save % in the AHL are numbers that not every goalie at that level has, and those numbers are with teams that didn't make the Calder Cup Playoffs. I'm going to go off topic (it will come full circle don't worry) real quick, just to show a few reasons why I think Stolarz will be in the NHL at the end of either this year or at the start of next season (baring everyone stays healthy). For the fist time since 2000. there's going to be an expansion draft at the end of this season for the Las Vegas team coming into the league. Teams can only protect x-amount of players that are with the NHL team. If I'm the Flyers and I know that I have a goalie in the system that could easily be on the NHL team, I'm not protecting both of my goalies.  All 3 of the goalies I've talked about so far will be free agents at the end of the year. Neuvirth and Mason will be UFA's, and Stolarz will be an RFA. Any time a player is going into free agency, teams will shop them around so they don't lose them to another team for free. Both Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth could be starters for a good amount of teams across the league, including the expansion team coming in next year. Figuring that you're only going to keep one and let the other go, you start reaching out and offering up trade deals to get rid of one, gain something in return and keep a solid goalie duo with either Neuvirth/Mason and Stolarz going into next year. The other option you can face is just simply not resigning one of the goalies during Free Agency and then pull Stolarz up and let him backup whoever you pick as your starter for next season. The third option the Flyers have, and this is the one I think is least likely to happen, is that you try and trade Stolarz for a top-6 forward before the end of the season. That would mean resigning both goalies with the Flyers right now and finding another AHL starter, but that isn't the first time it's happened where you need to find a new starter for a team in the minors. What most fans don't realize is how much the expansion draft will change things this year for teams at the trade deadline and during free agency. Some teams are going to purposely leave players off their "protected" list to get rid of their contract, whereas other teams are going to be trying to find a trading partner to get something in return before Las Vegas can add them for free. I think when it's all said and done, Stolarz will be on the Flyers bench by the end of this season as the backup, but it's who he is backing up will be the interesting part to see. It's nothing against Steve Mason, but I just don't think that he's the answer for the Flyers moving forward. I think the better goalie and the cheaper option too (ironically enough) is the duo of Michal Neuvirth and Anthony Stolarz.




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