If any Flyers fan hears the word "humongous," they instantly think of Ilya Bryzgalov. By think, I of course mean we are thrown into a brief moment of existential crisis at possibly the oddest 99-game stretch in Flyers history.
It started in June 2011, when the Flyers acquired the rights to negotiate with Bryzgalov, sending left wing Matt Clackson, a third-round draft pick in 2012, plus another conditional pick to Phoenix. If you're thinking, wait, where, it's where the Mammoth used to say they were from.
Negotiations were intense, and the Flyers made a flurry of other moves, including trading homegrown stalwarts Mike Richards and Jeff Carter away, bringing in players like Wayne Simmons, Brayden Schenn, and Jakub Voracek, who would become familiar faces for the next decade or so. All of this went down on June 23rd (Flyers D-Day as we're coming to call it) as well as Bryzgalov signing a nine-year $51 million dollar deal, that briefly made him the highest paid player in the league for the 2011-2012 season.
Now, his numbers look pretty good from season one. He played in 59 games with 57 starts, sporting a record of 33-16-7, with a goals against average of 2.48 and a save percentage of .909. However, the regular season was also a quote fest from Bryzgalov, who, while sometimes was inconsistent in the net, was consistently bizarre if anyone put a microphone in front of him.
From the infamous "Humongous Big" on HBO's 24/7 to talking about how the team had a chance to win the Winter Classic that year because he wasn't playing, against the longest shutout streak in Flyers history, and the second longest in modern NHL history, Bryz was all over the place.
He struggled in the playoffs, falling to a 5-6 record with a 3.46 goals against average and just a .887 save percentage as the Flyers bowed out in the second round to the surprising New Jersey Devils. The next year, Bryz saw his numbers fall, with just 40 starts to the tune of 19-17-3 with a save percentage of a flat .900 and a goals against average creeping up to 2.79. The lockout-shortened year saw the Flyers miss the playoffs and then buy out their goalie.
Today, though, we ask, what if they didn't? What if the Flyers had stuck with the then 32-year-old? Once the Flyers had jettisoned him, the league treated him like damaged goods, and he only played another 38 games over the next two years. The Flyers themselves were already fed up with their coach, Peter Laviolette, and he would be fired early into the next season.
Bryz never would've been able to stop this, short of standing on his head as the Flyers floundered and were nearly in open rebellion, but Steve Mason was still in place. Maybe the Flyers would've had a better 1A/1B situation, but then we wouldn't have been able to enjoy Ray Emery beat the absolute stuffing out of Braden Holtby. Either way, no goalie had real playoff success, and likely wouldn't have been able to magically find any.
The sad reality of Bryzgalov is that he needed to be in a small market. In Anaheim and Arizona, he was thriving with defensive-minded teams that didn't get a lot of media attention. The biggest problem Bryz had was that he was so ready to embrace the spotlight that it burned him. Quicker than Icarus, Bryzgalov was talking his way out of town and out of the league.
Nothing short of sheer hypnosis could've kept him in Philadelphia for the full tenure of his contract, and his eroding skills probably would've led to a buyout eventually. It was never an if, only a when.
But man, was it fun.