Is Goaltending the Fatal Weakness of the 2024-25 Flyers?
Philadelphia Flyers goaltenders have collectively struggled to give a flawed lineup of skaters the best chance to win during the first half of 2024-25. Aleksei Kolosov will assume the top spot in the crease while Sam Ersson sits with a lower-body issue forcing his third absence of the season. The unideal situation is part of the trickle-down effect resulting from the circumstances surrounding Carter Hart and his sudden departure from the team in January 2024. Danny Briere and the Flyers now face a serious goaltending weakness affecting the progress of the rebuild. The Carter Hart Domino Ersson hasn’t cemented his future as a number one NHL goaltender with his ability or his availability in 2024-25. The young Swede has several strong performances to his credit, but he’s lacked consistency in his opportunities between injuries. The Flyers have shown very few indications of confidence in Ivan Fedotov as a contributor just months after guaranteeing him $6.5 million on a two-year contract. Kolosov has stayed on the NHL roster most of the season for reasons that have as much or more to do with his unwillingness to play in the AHL than his NHL readiness at age 22. Related Content: Does Aleksei Kolosov Deserve Backup Goalie Job With Flyers? Since Carter Hart left the team because of circumstances surrounding the investigation into sexual assault allegations of former junior players for Hockey Canada, Flyers goaltending has been a collective weakness. Philadelphia ranks last in in the NHL with an .869 team save percentage in 2024-25. Struggles between the pipes and more recent sloppy team defense has sunk them to 30th of 32 teams in goals against per games played. https://twitter.com/ToNewbyginnings/status/1875189131799826682 Can an often-injured Ersson, an unproven 28-year-old Fedotov, or an inexperienced Kolosov offer short-term competence in the crease enough to prevent the Flyers from slipping toward the bottom of the NHL standings? If nobody emerges this season, the organization risks losing their emphasized priority during the rebuild of developing players at the NHL level with meaningful games to shape their inexperience. Flyers Goaltending Woes John Tortorella passed on the prompt to evaluate goaltender Kolosov after the Flyers suffered a 5-2 loss against the Vegas Golden Knights on January 2. A head coach notorious for his postgame fire said a lot by saying nothing at all. He didn't need to elaborate on frustration from Kolosov's backbreaking misplay on a low percentage wrister off the stick of Alexander Holtz in the third period. Tortorella has set a precedent for the negative inference of his postgame goaltending evaluation. He rashly left the postgame podium in response to a question about Felix Sandstrom following a tough goaltending performance in March 2024. Philadelphia’s former backup lost his position after the postgame exchange, and he hasn’t played in an NHL game since. Tortorella less dramatically passed up the opportunity to evaluate Fedotov after the towering Russian goalie struggled to begin the 2024-25 season. Fedotov has since slipped down the depth chart below Kolosov. One of the NHL’s most experienced head coaches openly admits his lack of expertise in goaltending technique. He’s comfortable delegating responsibilities to goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh. However, he recognizes his team’s most glaring weakness over the past calendar year. “The goaltending situation – I said it at the beginning of the year, and I’ll say it now – it’s been forced into a situation that we really didn’t want because we’re still evaluating Ers. We’re evaluating Feds and Koly. We still don’t know what it is, and we’re trying to win games. We’ll see where it goes.” -John Tortorella Tortorella called goaltending the “heartbeat” of an NHL team just two months ago. He can’t be satisfied with that heartbeat as the Flyers linger on the playoff bubble. John Tortorella: "It’s the water in Philly" The 2023-24 Flyers impressively built themselves a cushion in playoff position during the first half of the season. However, goaltending issues became arguably the most detrimental factor in the late-season collapse that kept them from earning their first trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2020 bubble. Tortorella himself admitted to playing Ersson a “ridiculous” amount that wore down an inexperienced goalie with projected top netminder Carter Hart unavailable. The Flyers haven’t effectively addressed the vacancy. “Nobody expected the wrench to be thrown in (by Hart's absence)… It’s years of planning the most important position on your hockey team: goaltending. It’s the water in Philly or something happens that everything gets screwed up. Noone expected Carter leaving and forcing Ers into this situation. Then it’s just a domino effect with these other guys. Then we got two other guys in the wings, I think, in the organization. I’m not sure where it all goes, but it is what it is. We’ve got to deal with it.” -John Tortorella Briere invested significant draft capital in the organization’s goaltending pipeline early in his tenure as the general manager. First, he traded into the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft to select Carson Bjarnason. He continued the commitment to the game’s most impactful position one round later by selecting Yegor Zavragin. Bjarnason has shown promise in the WHL this season. He appears on track to leave the junior level to turn pro for the 2025-26 season and contend for the crease with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Zavragin has shown flashes of excellence in the KHL, but another Russian mystery complicates his NHL timeline. Briere estimated during an interview on 97.5 The Fanatic in July 2024 that Zavragin is about three years away from his NHL rookie season. Goaltending development, however, is slower than any other position in hockey. Some NHL front offices even worry that drafting goalies isn't worthwhile because the picks more often benefit the next front office regime years down the road. There’s plenty of history behind the slick industry joke. An NHL GM drafted a goalie, and someday, he hopes to meet him. Until Briere's picks break into the NHL, the ghosts of Michael Leighton, Ilya Bryzgalov, Sergei Bobrovsky, and the long list of names contributing to the ironic narrative of Philadelphia as a “goalie graveyard” will persist as the most glaring question mark within the organization.