Through the first half of the 2023-24 season, Sam Ersson was one of the most positive surprises on a Philadelphia Flyers team full of them. After getting his feet wet at the NHL level the previous season, the Swedish netminder took a significant step forward. He started the season as the primary backup to incumbent starter Carter Hart, but Ersson began to earn head coach John Tortorella’s trust. He played just two games in October and six in November, but by the end of January, he was in a full-on timeshare with Hart, playing in exactly half of the team’s first 50 games.
But circumstances out of Ersson’s control changed his status. Hart took a leave of absence in late January, as he was one of five members of the 2018 Canadian Men’s World Junior team charged with sexual assault following a gala celebrating the team. With Hart no longer on the roster, Ersson quickly became the team’s No. 1 goaltender. He played in 26 of the team’s final 32 games from the start of February onward, and the workload got to him. Ersson held serve through February with a .909 save percentage (SV%), but that cratered to an .870 SV% from March 1 to the end of the season, which ended with the Flyers just four points out of a playoff spot.
Still, it was a promising season for Ersson overall. There were two reasons to hope that he would be able to harness his first-half success throughout an 82-game season. First, with a full offseason and the experience of what it feels like to be an NHL starting goalie for months on end, Ersson would be able to handle the physical demands of a high workload better. If that didn’t happen, maybe Ivan Fedotov would be a capable backup with an offseason to get acclimated to the transition from Russia to Philadelphia.
But the hopes of competent play behind him quickly faded. Fedotov’s unorthodox style and poor results out of the gates caused a rapid loss of trust from Tortorella. Prospect Aleksei Kolosov received a quick promotion, but he proved too green for the NHL throughout the season. So, the burden was once again firmly on Ersson’s shoulders. And once again, it was just too much for him to handle.
A Rollercoaster Season
Although Ersson faltered at times when he was expected to rise to the occasion, there was still room for him to improve. There were numerous games throughout the 2024-25 season in which Ersson played very well and made several timely saves that helped the Flyers secure wins or standings points.
While his .883 SV% wasn’t dramatically better than Fedotov’s (.880 SV%) or Kolosov’s (.867 SV%), there’s a reason he went 22-17-5 (.556 team points percentage) while the other two were 11-22-5 (.381 points percentage). In other words, when Ersson was in the net, the Flyers won at roughly the same rate as the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens, two playoff teams. When he wasn’t, the Flyers were more like the second-to-last Chicago Blackhawks.
Ersson’s season was full of roughly two-week stretches that couldn’t have been more different. After a solid season opener, Ersson had an underwhelming start, allowing at least 0.6 goals above expected in his second through fifth starts, per Moneypuck.com. But a shutout victory over the Boston Bruins on Oct. 29 turned the tide. Though the team was still trying to find its defensive structure and offensive burst, Ersson held up his end of the bargain, stopping an impressive 6.31 goals above expected over six starts from then until Nov. 11.
That was followed by arguably Ersson’s ugliest stretch of play this season. December was a Christmas nightmare for the young goaltender as he had an .856 save percentage and allowed at least 1.2 goals above expected in all six appearances before the holiday break. Things improved on the other side of the holidays, as Ersson delivered his most consistent stretch of solid work starting at the end of 2024. From Dec. 28 to Feb. 25, Ersson posted an outstanding .919 save percentage, ninth best in the NHL over that time (min. 10 games played). Any Ersson supporters will likely point to those two months as proof that the Flyers have something in him.
But his detractors got their way shortly after the 4 Nations Face-Off. Ersson’s game fell off following a Feb. 27 game that saw the Flyers blow a 3-0 lead to the Pittsburgh Penguins. From that point on, Ersson was the worst goaltender in the league by SV%, with his .852% mark seven percentage points behind second-worst Ukko-Pekka Lukkonen and 17 behind third-worst Jacob Markström in that span. He allowed 15.42 goals above expected, which would’ve been third worst in the league for the entire season on its own, despite accounting for only about a quarter of the season.
That stretch ultimately torpedoed Ersson’s full-season numbers. He was fourth last in save percentage and goals saved above expected per 60 minutes. Only two goaltenders were below him in both categories, one of which was Fedotov (the other was the Seattle Kraken’s Philipp Grubauer). Suffice to say that’s not where any goaltender wants to be, even if Ersson looked better than a sieve on a night-to-night basis and there are reasons to explain at least some of his struggles.
“I need to find a way to be a little bit more consistent, especially when, in the later part of the season, I’m still trying to find ways to manage energy levels to find a way to perform at a consistent high level throughout the year,” Ersson admitted in his locker clean-out interview on April 19.
“That was also a goal going into the year, and I think at times, I did that,” he continued. “I think, like earlier on in the year… I had a five or six-game stretch before Christmas, which I wasn’t too happy with, but I still feel like I found ways to win some of those games. That to me is some of the games I think I’m most proud of looking back, ’cause you’re not playing at 100%, but you still find a way.”
Astute readers may have noticed that Ersson’s season recap skipped a month between mid-November and mid-December. That’s because Ersson was sidelined with a lower-body injury. That led into one of his weaker periods of the season, one that he was pulling out near the end of December, only to suffer another injury on New Year’s Eve against the San Jose Sharks. He also admitted at the end of the season that he was dealing with a lingering injury throughout the second half. While that may explain his statistical struggles, at least to an extent, it doesn’t help him answer the question of whether he is capable of being a starter.
In fairness to Ersson, the injury against the Sharks occurred when he collided with forward Luke Kunin late in the second period, so there wasn’t much he could’ve done differently there. But the former injury is another red flag about Ersson’s ability to handle the majority of the workload over a full season. When he floundered at the end of the 2023-24 season, Tortorella acknowledged that he was putting Ersson in an unfair position simply because there was no other viable option.
That wasn’t necessarily the case this season, though. Ersson knew he was in a position to be the team’s starter from the jump. But he couldn’t make it through the season healthy or maintain his level of play late in the season when fatigue seemed to set in.
Unlike the other two goalies the Flyers used this season, Ersson is guaranteed to be on the team in the 2025-26 season. He’s under contract at a modest $1.45 million next season and will be a restricted free agent in the 2026 offseason. That feels like a good point to reassess Ersson’s fit as the Flyers start to transition into win-now mode. And while general manager Daniel Brière was hesitant to blame Ersson or his fellow netminders for all of the team’s woes, it seems clear he realizes the status quo can’t remain.
“The goaltending wasn’t good enough,” Brière said during his final availability of the season on April 19. “That’s a reality, but it’s too simple to just say, blame everything on the goalie. There are other parts that weren’t good, but also realize the goalies did not play to the expectations we had.”
“There’s a lot more issues that go into it,” he continued. “I’ve talked to all the goalies. They know they have a lot to prove, and it’s not going to be good enough to come back at the same level.”
There will almost certainly be a new, more established presence alongside Ersson next season. Maybe Brière makes a blockbuster trade for someone like John Gibson or Thatcher Demko, although that feels unlikely, and both of those goalies have injury histories as well. More than likely, it’s someone like Jake Allen or Dan Vladar, a capable tandem option who can handle a larger share of the crease at times but can also take a back seat if Ersson steps up his game.
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The Flyers have long liked Ersson’s poise and makeup, and though his numbers aren’t dramatically better than Fedotov’s or Kolosov’s, it’s clear that he’s miles ahead of both. But that isn’t where the bar is for him. At 25 years old, Ersson is still fairly young for a goaltender. The last thing the Flyers want to do is give up on another Sergei Bobrovsky or Anthony Stolarz too early.
A lot is riding on new head coach Rick Tocchet and goalie coach Kim Dillabaugh, their evaluation of Ersson, and subsequent plans for Ersson’s preseason and regular season work schedule. If the Flyers truly want to move into playoff contention next season, they can’t do it with the results they received from Ersson this season.
Ersson said his goal is to prove that he can be a starting-caliber goaltender. He won’t be given that title at the start of the 2025-26 season, but should have the runway to grab it if he proves capable. But that may be his last chance to grab that role.
