Flyers sign goalie Dan Vladař to a five-year, $27.5 million extension

Last July 1, the Flyers surprised many by signing Dan Vladař to a two-year, $6.7 million contract. Vladař then went out and surprised many with his play.

One year later, Vladař is sticking around for the foreseeable future. The Flyers announced Wednesday that he is signing a five-year, $27.5 million contract extension with an annual average value of $5.5 million. The contract comes with a no-trade clause for the first two years, followed by a no-movement clause for the remaining three years, with it dwindling from 15 teams to five. Vladař’s contract won’t kick in until the 2027-28 season and will take him through his age 34 season.

The writing had been on the wall for some time that this was happening. Asked about the rumors of an extension, Vladař joked at his end-of-season availability that, while he would accept the phone call for the extension, “If you can ask the same question to Danny Brière, I’m going to be watching. So we’ll see what he says.”

» READ MORE: Dan Vladař has been the Flyers’ MVP all season long. He’s also far from your typical goalie.

Two days later, the general manager was quick to respond, saying, “I heard his answer. Maybe we wait, and I’ll talk to you guys [off camera] about that.” The extension could not be signed until July 1.

The Czech goalie, who was previously a career backup, almost exclusively in Calgary, is coming off the best season of his career while playing almost twice as many games as his previous career high. Across 51 starts, he went 29-14-7, putting up the most wins by a goalie since Steve Mason in 2013-14. He also had one relief appearance, stopping all six shots he faced from the Boston Bruins, to finish the regular season with a 2.42 goals-against average and .906 save percentage.

In the postseason, despite the Flyers losing in four straight games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes after beating the rival Pittsburgh Penguins in six, Vladař’s numbers were even better. He posted the ninth-best playoff GAA among Flyers goalies all-time with at least five starts (2.18) and the eighth-best save percentage (.922). Vladař recorded two shutouts in the playoffs, making him the eighth Orange and Black netminder to have a pair in the postseason; the team did not record one in the regular season.

“Vladdy, he was a monster in there,” forward Travis Konecny said after the season. “And he wins the games two ways. There’s the — we’re not playing good; he comes and talks to us, pumps us up. We believe in him, so you kind of keep going, you keep pushing, you find a way to win. Or he wins the game by just being Vladdy, and he just takes the game.”

Vladař revealed after the season that he had sustained an injury in the playoffs when Penguins forward Bryan Rust ran over his arm. Because of it, he wasn’t able to represent Czechia at the men’s World Championships in May.

Bringing in Vladař, who will turn 29 in August, helped to solidify a position that has long been a question mark in Philly. The previous year, the Flyers’ three-headed monster of Sam Ersson — who was traded recently for Joseph Woll — Aleksei Kolosov, and Ivan Fedotov — who was traded before last season — combined for a league-worst .879 save percentage. Brière stressed that things needed to be better.

Under Vladař, they were.

“He blew [away] the expectations that we had on him,” the GM said at his end-of-season availability. “Going into the season, I know you guys all wrote about that or spoke about it, how he’d never played more than 30 games in a season in the NHL. Obviously, that was a worry for us, and that’s why we thought it was going to be a good tandem with Sam. But he really took over and earned more starts

“... That gives you confidence because of the way he played in the playoffs, too; he didn’t slow down, and he was just as good, or even better in the playoffs. So that was really exciting to see. And yeah, it makes us believe that he could be the answer here for hopefully a few more years.”