Garth Snow. Neil Little. Maxime Ouellet. Jean-Marc Pelletier. Antero Niittymaki. Anthony Stolarz. Besides making Flyers fans hang their heads and sigh, what do these former Flyers goalies have in common? All were hyped up to be the "goalie of the future". At least Snow played a bunch of years in the NHL for other teams. It also seems as if Stolarz is finally having the career we were originally promised to see.
When it comes to goaltending, you can never have enough prospects. Remember, the Flyers used eight goalies in 2018-19. Can you name them all? It never hurts to restock the cupboards because an injury or incompetence is just a play away.
Right now, the Flyers have Sam Ersson. Ivan Fedotov, and Alexsei Kolosov. Ersson isn't bad, but has been overworked and may have some confidence issues. Fedotov and Kolosov...take your pick. They've each had a few good games, but for the most part have been massive disappointments. And if Kolosov thought he might get the chance to run away back to Belarus and play there again....oops.
Down below, the Flyers have Carson Bjarnason, who just made his appearance at the AHL level at the tail end of last season. Though he only dressed for games, he never played. The Flyers have Yegor Zavragin, but he plays in Russia. We all saw what it took for Fedotov to escape from there, so his arrival in North America could take some time.
With that in mind, Daniel Briere and the Flyers could look at Joshua Ravensbergen as one of the two late-round picks in the first round.
Most teams don't pick goalies anymore in the first round of the NHL draft. Since the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, four goalies have been selected in the first round: Spencer Knight (2019), Yaroslav Askarov (2020), Sebastian Cossa (2020), and Jesper Wallstedt (2020). None of them has made a huge impact in the NHL.
However, we don't know if Bjarnason is ready to make the jump to the NHL yet. We also don't know how well Ersson will react to having the summer off and coming off playing well enough at the World Championship, guiding Sweden to a bronze medal. Fedotov and Kolosov are too big of a question mark at this point to figure out what will happen in their future. All three will be free agents next year.
This is where Ravensbergen comes in. He is 18. He is 6'5". He has good side-to-side motion and is widely accepted to be the top goalie in this year's draft. He might be the only goalie that is worth a first-round pick (or an early second-round one).
Elite Prospects says that Ravensbergen is "an imposing 6-foot-5 goalie who moves well and has elite play reading, Ravensbergen doesn’t have to look flashy because he’s always in the right position. He challenges shooters appropriately, which can lead to situations where he simply engulfs the entire net because of his size."
The Hockey Writers like his potential, but warn that "he tends to give up rebounds on shots from difficult angles, which has led to goals against previously. He has gotten better at it, and it seems as though he has continued to work on that specific skill, but it’s something he should look to fine-tune as he tries to make a push into the NHL."
Ravensbergen is also different in that he catches with his right hand, something unusual in today's NHL. That could present a challenge to many hockey players as it gives them a different-looking foe in between the pipes.
Do the Flyers need him? Hard to say. Goaltending has been a weaker part of this team for a while. Considering that as a late first-round pick, he'd need to develop, seeing him becoming a starter in two to three years is a gamble I'd be willing to take a chance on.
Unless Briere swings a trade for a goalie or signs a free agent, this could be the next best option. Roll with Ersson and someone for a year, develop Bjarnason with the Phantoms, and wait a few years for Ravensbergen to mature. Maybe he sticks in the WHL for a while, or maybe he's called up first. Maybe he gets thrown right into the action the the AHL with Lehigh Valley.
Still, it's an option the Flyers can use. And if they don't want to use a first-rounder on him, they will have the fourth and eighth picks to start the second round.