One rookie goaltender has a record of 23-19-7 with a GAA of 2.82, a save percentage of .890, and four shutouts for the Philadelphia Flyers. The other had a record of 28-13-8 with a GAA of 2.59, a save percentage of .915, and no shutouts. The first goalie is Sam Ersson. The second one is Sergei Bobrovsky. And while the stats are similar in some respects, we have to take things with a grain of salt.
Bobrovsky started his career in Philly when injuries wiped out the other goalies and he had made a big impression during training camp. He also had a much deeper defensive corps in front of him and a legit Stanley Cup-contending team.
Ersson, at this time last year, was fighting to be the team's backup goalie. He had impressed in 10 starts the year before when Carter Hart was hurt. But with the addition of Cal Petersen in the Ivan Provorov trade, his position seemed less secure. After all, the team still had Felix Sandstrom under contract.
But, as I said, that was last year. Petersen faltered. Sandstrom did likewise. Hart got hurt and then took a leave of absence to deal with his legal battles. This left Ersson in the net. It turns out that was the best thing possible for the Flyers.
The main storyline for last year was a team that did well and then struggled towards the end of the season. Ok, that is true. However, the real narrative of the Flyers' story from last year should be the stellar play of Ersson in the net.
Hart was the ballyhooed savior of this team. For years he had been celebrated as the next great Flyers' goalie and the first great one since Ron Hextall. In 218 career starts, Hart had just six shutouts. In 59 career starts, Ersson has five. It wasn't until his third season in the NHL that Bobrovsky recorded a shutout. By that time, he had been traded to Columbus.
Ersson started the season as the top backup. He finished as the starting goalie. He played too much as the backups that came up weren't great. He was overworked to give the Flyers any chance at making the playoffs. It is too bad they fell short. If you take away his stat lines from the last three weeks of play, his GAA and save percentage would be even higher. On a team that is not ready to contend yet with just about all of the good defenders hurt, those are good numbers that Ersson put up last year.
Now, the net belongs to him. He has the starting job. With him being rested up and a team that should be, hopefully, healthy, we can expect good things from him. On Team Sweden this summer, he posted a 3-1 record with a 1.41 GAA and a .891 save percentage as Sweden won the bronze at the 2024 World Championship.
The Flyers will be relying heavily on Ersson this year. The assumed backup goalie is Ivan Fedotov. He is still an unknown factor in the net. The Flyers also still hold the rights to Petersen and we hope to all that is holy above that we don't have to rely on that mess again. Sandstrom is now in Buffalo. The point is, after Ersson, the goalie depth gets pretty thin for now. However, if he is up to the task like he was last year, the Flyers could be in for another great ride in 2024-25.