Throughout their 58-year history, the Flyers have had several great players between the pipes. Bernie Parent is the most accomplished, being the only Flyers goalie inducted into the Hall of Fame and to have his name on the Cup. Other players that come to mind are guys like Pete Peeters, Doug Favell, and Bob Frose. This legacy even continues today with Sergi Bobrovsky getting his start in the City of Brotherly Love.
However, no one is more synonymous with the Flyers' goaltending position than Ron Hextall. After making his debut during the 1986-87 season, Hextall quickly became a fan favorite. He was known for his physical play as a goaltender and was the first goalie to score a goal in NHL history. Over his 11 seasons with the Flyers, he had a .895 save percentage and a 2.91 goals against average.
But the crowning achievement of Hextall's time as a Flyer was when he broke Parent's record for most wins in team history. During the final few years of his career, Hextall saw a significant reduction in playing time. However, even with fewer starts, he still had a shot to break the Parent record. On November 21st, 1998, Hextall finally notched win 232, with a 3-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, becoming the all-time leader in wins. Hextall stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced in his record-setting night.
Throughout the rest of the season, Hextall was able to add eight more wins, bringing his total up to 240, and then retired at the end of the 1998-99 season. Since then, the record has comfortably stood. Over the past 27 years, no Flyers goaltender has even come close to touching his record, and with the current state of who's in net, it looks like it won't be broken anytime soon.
Ron Hextall will hold the Flyers win record for the foreseeable future
Last season, the goalie situation was a complete disaster for the Flyers. Between the three players who started, none of them had a save percentage above .885 or a goals against average below three. The best of the bunch was Samuel Ersson, who had a .883 save percentage and a goals against average of 3.14. He was also the only goalie who had a winning record, finishing at 22-17-5. You can't be a winning hockey team if your goalie struggles this badly.
The Flyers also didn't bring in anyone this offseason to improve the situation. They signed Dan Vladar to a two-year deal worth $3.35 million annually, but he's not much of an improvement. Last season in 30 games with the Flames, he had a .898 save percentage and 2.80 goals against average. This was his best season since 2021-22, when he had a .907 save percentage and a 2.75 goals against average. He's not someone who's going to come in and fix the problem.
There also isn't a big prospect the Flyers can call up to save the team. Carson Bjarnason is the only goalie prospect the Flyers have with any upside that's close to the NHL. But he's yet to play at the AHL level, and will need some time to develop. It's likely to be at least a season before he's ready to make his NHL debut.
For now Hextall record is pretty safe. There is not a goalie that can make a serious threat at breaking the record anytime soon. However, if the Flyers want to take the next step in their rebuild, they need to find someone reliable in net.
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