Ranking the 5 best Flyers goalies from Ron Hextall to Carter Hart

Flyers: 1. Sergei Bobrovsky

He played just two seasons here and was a young Russian phenom. And as happens so often with this team of ours, the blame is placed on the goalie and they look for replacements. In this case, the team found Bryz. A year later, he was traded. Still, Bobrovsky was a damn good goalie.

He was the youngest goaltender to win a season-opening game in Flyers history and the youngest to win his debut. As a rookie, he was amazing; posting a 28–13–8 record with a 2.57 GAA and a .915 save percentage.

But he faltered in the playoffs; being replaced by Boucher.  The next season saw him backing up Bryz. In seven total playoff games, three of which he started, he has an atrocious 4.04 GAA and .848 save percentage to go with two losses.  He would be packaged for three draft picks and sent to Columbus.

In Columbus, he flourished. He would earn two Vezina Trophies and be named to two All-Star teams. Every Flyers fan wondered what would’ve happened had the Flyers kept him instead of going off the get Bryz to play.

And while he only played two years in Philly, what he did during the regular season was outstanding. And what he did for other teams makes you wish he did that here instead of for them. That’s why he tops this list; not just what he did as a Flyer but how great he became afterward.

While his playoff experiences have dogged his career, I still feel that he was a great goalie. Had he been given the reigns and confidence of the Flyers, I think that the legacy of the 2010s would’ve been different for the team.

Maybe they would’ve won a cup; maybe they wouldn’t. Either way, I don’t think the alternating years of one-and-done followed by no playoffs would’ve happened. At the very least, they would’ve gone deeper. But that’s what’s fun about looking back on a team’s history. You can always ask “what if?”.