This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Samuel Ersson
Philadelphia Flyers Goaltender
A .883 across 47 games, on a club whose goaltending finished 42 goals worse than the chances faced.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | PHI | 12 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 33 | 3.07 | 1 | 327 | .899 |
| 2023-24 | PHI | 51 | 23 | 19 | 7 | 132 | 2.82 | 4 | 1204 | .890 |
| 2024-25 | PHI | 47 | 22 | 17 | 5 | 136 | 3.14 | 2 | 1162 | .883 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 110 | 51 | 39 | 12 | 301 | 2.98 | 7 | 2693 | .888 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
22-17-5 in 47 games with an .883, a 3.14 average and 2 shutouts, facing 1,162 shots.
The club’s goaltending came in 42.1 goals worse than the chances faced — 32nd in the league, and by a distance. Philadelphia was 4th in the league at suppressing chances at even strength and conceded 265 goals. He was the largest single share of that.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 194 and the technique is orthodox and unspectacular. He is square to the puck and he plays a conventional depth, neither deep in his net nor out challenging.
The rebound control is the problem. Pucks come off him into the slot rather than to the corners, and behind a club that concedes as few first chances as this one does, the second chance is where the season went. The lateral recovery is ordinary and the glove has been beaten from distance more often than it should be. He handles the puck adequately.
The Mental Game
He has now played two seasons as the number one and posted an .8904 and an .883, and he did not visibly come apart in either of them.
There is a version of this where a young goaltender given a job too early on a bad club is ruined by it, and there is a version where he is fine and the sample is the club. Two seasons at this level is beginning to be enough to answer that.
The Intangibles
A fifth-round pick in 2018 out of Sweden, and 110 NHL games in with a career .8882.
He is 25. Dan Vladar was signed in the summer, which is the club saying out loud that the job is no longer his by default.