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NHL Network Ranks Dan Vladar Eighth on its List of “Top 10 Goalies Right Now”
By Matt Schultz
Published:
Now we get it back to the Flyers:
Stumbling upon this tweet stirred many emotions in me. The first one, of course, was amazement. It’s weird to see a Flyers goalie on any sort of good list. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my life. My guarded, knee-jerk reaction was to think it’s some sort of mistake, or a tweet from a meme account. But no. This is real. The NHL Network has Dan Vladar as a top-ten goalie in the league right now. They called him The Brick Wall of Broad Street, a nickname that is not that good and is too long, but still, a nickname nonetheless. Incredible.
Then my amazement shifted to skepticism. “Maybe this is a bogus list,” I thought. “Maybe the NHL Network doesn’t know what they’re talking about, or they’re just trying to get clicks and engagement and stuff. Let me see what the rest of their list looks like…” So I did:
And nothing jumps out at me as wrong here. Everything looks right to my eye, and last year’s stats back it up:
Looking at the stats, I kind of forgot just how good Vladar was last season. He carried a huge workload by appearing in 52 games and posted a stellar 29-14-7 record. He was extremely efficient, making 1,162 saves on 1,283 shots to secure .906 save percentage, which was tied for eighth in the league. And most impressively, he allowed just 121 goals all season to finish 3rd in the NHL with an elite 2.42 goals against average among workhorse goaltenders with at least 40 games played.
And he did stuff like this:
This is good stuff. Vladar is a top-ten goalie in the NHL. This is canon now. And who knows, maybe he’ll get even better this year. He’s turning 29 on Thursday (August 20th, happy birthday Vladdy). Maybe he’s just hitting his stride. This happens with goalies. A lot of them take a while before they hit their prime. Maybe this is just the beginning. The Flyers must think that, considering the five-year extension they just gave him:
OFFICIAL: We have signed goaltender Dan Vladar to a five-year contract extension worth an annual average value (AAV) of $5.5 million. https://t.co/LPaycBPcvW
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) July 1, 2026
According to Spotrac, once his $5.5 million AAV kicks in, Vladar will be the 15th highest-paid goalie in the league. But maybe he’ll play so good that we’ll all come to look at that contract as a steal. Maybe Vladar will be number one on this list next year. I bet he will. I’m going to choose to believe this. Got a good feeling.
Matt Schultz is a comedy and sports writer from Philadelphia. He’s written extensively for ClickHole, The Onion, and Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco. His work has been featured in Vulture, Deadspin, The A.V. Club, Paste Magazine, and other publications. Much of his sports journalism can be found on college basketball websites that don’t exist anymore (PhilaHoops Heads rise up…) email: M.Schultz@sportradar.com