Flyers Sign Goaltender Martin Jones To One-Year Contract

The NHL’s free agency period kicked off on Wednesday at noon ET, and the Flyers made their first move by signing goaltender Martin Jones to a one-year, $2,000,000 contract.

Jones, a 31 year-old left-handed catcher from North Vancouver, British Columbia, had spent the last six seasons as the starting goaltender for the San Jose Sharks. He posted a 170-121-27 record, .907 save percentage, 2.66 goals against average, and 18 shutouts while in San Jose.

Jones’ 2020-21 season was frankly not very good, as he went 15-13-4 with an .896 SV%, 3.28 GAA, and one shutout on a Sharks squad that finished sixth in the West Division and missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a second straight season.

Jones has not posted a save percentage north of .900 since 2017-18, as he’s posted an .896 SV% for three consecutive seasons now, and his GAA has ballooned upwards every season in that span. His best NHL season came in 2015-16 when he sported a 37-23-4 record with a .918 SV%, 2.27 GAA, and 6 shutouts.

Jones will serve as Carter Hart’s backup in a pivotal season for both goaltenders, as Hart will look to rebound after a disappointing 2020-21 season and Jones will look to improve and find his game again after a rocky end to his tenure in San Jose.

Jones does bring a veteran presence in goal with playoff experience and also has a Stanley Cup championship to his credit, coming in 2014 while serving as Jonathan Quick’s backup with the Los Angeles Kings. Jones also backstopped the Sharks to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final in his first year with the club, a series they would lose in six games to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Jones has 62 Stanley Cup Playoffs appearances under his belt, with 60 of them coming with San Jose. He maintains a 32-27 record with a .917 SV%, 2.37 GAA, and six shutouts in postseason play. Since his first year with the Sharks in 2015-16, his 60 playoff games played rank fourth among all goaltenders, trailing only Andrei Vasilevskiy (77), Marc-Andre Fleury (64), and Braden Holtby (63).

Jones will also reunite with former Sharks teammate Justin Braun as well, as Braun was a lifelong Shark who played with Jones in San Jose every year until his trade to Philadelphia in 2019, so perhaps some familiarity with a teammate will help ease his adjustment with his new club.

On the surface, it seems like a risky move for general manager Chuck Fletcher and the Flyers to make, as Jones has been in decline for a few years now and he actually managed to put up worse numbers than the goalie he’s replacing in Brian Elliott, who signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning when free agency began.

The Flyers are obviously hoping Jones can return to his previous form when he was with the Kings and in his earlier days with the Sharks, but if Jones does not pan out, it could spell trouble if Hart does not rebound as well as he’s anticipated to as well either, and it could leave the Flyers in the same goaltending pickle as they were for much of last year.