When the Philadelphia Flyers inevitably sign starting goalie Dan Vladar to a contract extension, the new deal will come with some sticker shock. That is to be expected with the goalie market the way it is these days.
Vladar, 28, bet on himself last summer when he signed a two-year, $6.7 million ($3.35 million AAV) contract with the Flyers, parlaying some boilerplate seasons with the Calgary Flames into an opportunity to become a No. 1 goalie in the NHL.
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The Czech netminder did that in 2025-26, going 29-14-7 in 52 games for the Flyers while posting a 2.42 GAA and .906 save percentage.
Notably, Vladar’s 52 games played were greater than his 2023-24 (20) and 2024-25 (30) totals with the Flames combined. For the Flyers, the signing was, admittedly, a bit of a risk, but it paid off.
Now, once July 1 arrives, the Flyers can move to extend the backbone of their team, and while we all expect that to happen, the deliberation focuses more on how long the new contract is for, and how much it will pay.
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You can expect it to be something like five years and $25- to $30 million (between $5- and $6 million AAV).
That seems rich for an older goalie coming off a career year, right? Well, it is, and that is also invariably going to be the market for him and any other established goalie held in high regard by an organization.
For recent precedent, we can look to the Vancouver Canucks, who are just one year removed from having Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet behind their bench.
On Feb. 21, 2025, while Tocchet was still with the team, the Canucks signed backup goalie Kevin Lankinen to a five-year, $22.5 million ($4.5 million AAV) deal with the Finn admirably filling in for an ailing Thatcher Demko.
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Last season, Lankinen finished the year 25-15-10 in 51 games, posting a 2.62 GAA and .902 save percentage in an expanded role.
In his previous two seasons with the Nashville Predators, Lankinen had played a combined 43 regular season games. See the similarities?
An easy counterargument against the Lankinen comparison would be that Lankinen was a paltry 11-27-5 this past season with a 3.70 GAA and .875 save percentage, but no religious or spiritual deity is saving what was the 2025-26 Canucks, who finished last in the NHL by a comfortable 14-point margin.
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The Flyers, like the Canucks when they signed Lankinen, are in no position to mess about with their future in goal. Demko’s injury issues have, obviously, proven to be problematic, while the Flyers just suffered through two dire seasons at the expense of their goaltending before Vladar came along.
If Vladar pulls in a contract that exceeds $20 million, as he very well should, he’ll be making a bit less than a good starter would be elsewhere in the NHL.
In a few years, when the salary cap goes up, the 28-year-old will probably just be making decent money to be an upper-tier backup, which the Flyers should hope he will be.
By extending Vladar, the Flyers, quite literally, buy themselves more time to patiently develop goalie prospects like Aleksei Kolosov, Egor Zavragin, Carson Bjarnason, and any other netminders they may select in 2026 and future drafts.
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There is a price to pay, just as there was with Christian Dvorak, Owen Tippett, and Travis Konecny, but the Flyers are in no position to do otherwise.
For Vladar, the next contract will be a well-earned raise that rewards him for all the work he put in to address the weaknesses in his game and become a better goalie.
