The Flyers are banking on Dan Vladař being the answer to their goalie prayers. It’s a bet worth making.

The Flyers and goaltenders go together like oil and water. But it hasn’t always been that way.

Original Flyer and franchise icon Bernie Parent backstopped the team to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and ‘75 with arguably the best two-year run by a goalie in NHL history. But fast forward 51 years, and the Flyers are still waiting to hoist Lord Stanley again, and still searching for a franchise goaltender who can hold a candle to the man that Philadelphians joked saved almost as much as the Lord.

There have been aspirants along the way: Pelle Lindbergh tragically died just as he was entering his prime. Ron Hextall never quite reached the hype of his Conn Smythe-winning rookie season. Future Hall of Famer Sergei Bobrovsky was shipped out in favor of Ilya Bryzgalov, and most recently Carter Hart’s promising start here ended in disgrace.

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That brings us to the next great hope to solve the Flyers’ longstanding conundrum in the crease: Dan Vladař.

Signed to a two-year, $6.7 million contract before last season, the 29-year-old career backup was a revelation for the Flyers, finishing sixth in Vezina Trophy voting and leading the team to an improbable run to the second round of the playoffs. For his efforts, the Flyers rewarded Vladař this summer with a five-year, $27.5 million extension, one that will pay the Czech netminder through his age-34 season.

Given Vladař’s exploits and the Flyers’ perpetual void between the pipes, you’d have expected his extension to be greeted warmly. Instead, due to his age and short track record, it has become a point of contention among the faithful. Here’s a closer look at Vladař’s new deal and why it was a no-brainer from a Flyers perspective.

Why were the Flyers so eager to extend Vladař even with a year remaining on his contract? Well, to start, he was really bleeping good.

Among goalies who started 40 games last season, Vladař ranked third in goals-against average (2.42), tied for eighth in save percentage (.906), was ninth in goals saved above expected (13.8), second in quality start percentage (72.5%), and third in even-strength save percentage (.923). He was even better in the postseason, leading all qualified goalies in save percentage (.922) and ranking second in goals-against average (2.18) and goals saved above expected per 60 (.805), according to Money Puck.

For a Flyers franchise that has recycled goalies like soda cans over the years, and that was just one year removed from posting a historically bad .879 team save percentage among Sam Ersson, Ivan Fedotov, and Aleksei Kolosov, Vladař stabilized the problem position beyond imagination and showed he was capable of handling the workload of a No. 1. He also demonstrated the calm demeanor and bounceback ability needed to play the much-scrutinized position in a city like Philadelphia.

But what if he is a one-year wonder?

While never a full-time starter, the 6-foot-5 Vladař showed promising signs before last season and was well regarded in the goalie analytics community. He posted a .906 save percentage in 23 games in 2022-23, and in his final year with the Flames, he ranked 18th in the NHL in even-strength save percentage (.913), only to be done in by the league’s 25th-ranked penalty kill. That’s not to say anyone expected a top-10 Vezina glow up, just that he’s long been a solid NHL netminder.

Vladař’s value to the Flyers goes beyond his play in the crease as well, as, rather atypically for a goalie, he was a team leader and a prominent voice in the dressing room. Rick Tocchet and several of his teammates praised his positivity in tough moments, while Owen Tippett said he’d “never played with a goalie that’s been that vocal, both on the ice [and] off.”

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“Dan Vladař wanted to be a Flyer,” general manager Danny Brière said on July 1. “He was adamant … when you have your MVP from the previous year who says,’ I want to be here, this is my team, I want to lead this team,’ it made it really easy for us to [sign him] — especially at the number that we got [him at].”

As good as Vladař was, and anyone who watched him last season will vouch that he was excellent, he was also helped by the way the Flyers played.

The Flyers were one of the league’s best shot suppression teams, surrendering just 25.5 per game, the fourth-best mark in the NHL. That correlated to high-danger shots as well, as the Flyers allowed the fourth-fewest high-danger chances at five-on-five and had the fourth-fewest expected goals allowed mark, according to Natural Stat Trick.

This was no fluke either, as Tocchet is a defense-first coach who has a track record of keeping opposing teams’ shots to the outside and insulating his goaltenders. Thatcher Demko came second in Vezina voting during Tocchet’s time in Vancouver, while the Arizona Coyotes ranked in the top five in team save percentage in two of Tocchet’s four years in the desert.

The Flyers upgrading the backup position with a starting-caliber goaltender in Joseph Woll should also only help Vladař. Last season, the gap in quality between Vladař and Ersson was so vast that the Flyers were forced to overplay Vladař, especially as they pushed for the playoffs late in the year. Woll, 28, comes with durability concerns, but if he’s healthy, he’s a .906 goalie for his career and someone who should allow the Flyers to divide the 84 games up more evenly and keep Vladař fresh.

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While many are harping that Vladař is over the hill, he only turned 29 in August and should still have a lot of good hockey in front of him.

Being 29 as a goalie is not nearly the same as being 29 as a skater, as many goalies’ primes run into their early-to-mid-30s. In fact, five of the last six Vezina winners have been 29 or older, while each of the top four goalies in save percentage last season was at least 29.

Like with a starting pitcher, Vladař should also age more gracefully than most given he’s been relatively healthy throughout his career and has an extremely low number of games under his belt for someone his age. Theoretically, the lower number of miles on Vladař’s speedometer should mean his body is fresher and less taxed than the typical 29-year-old netminder.

For context, Vladař has started 156 games (including playoffs) entering his age-29 season. That number pales in comparison to contemporaries like Andrei Vasilevskiy (535), Connor Hellebuyck (407), Igor Shesterkin (252), and Ilya Sorokin (202) at that age — the latter two also had 117 and 244 Kontinental Hockey League games played, respectively, before coming to North America. How little has Vladař played comparatively? Jake Oettinger, who is entering his 28-year-old season, has already started 365 games, and Jeremy Swayman (27) has 261 under his belt.

Those numbers all bode well for a goalie who started 51 games last year in the regular season and all 10 in the playoffs after previously never starting more than 29 in a season. Vladař did so without showing any signs of fatigue or his play dropping off, case in point being his stellar play in Round 2 vs. Carolina.

All these factors make a five-year contract, at a below-market average annual value of $5.5 million per year, a good bet for the goalie-starved Flyers. When his contract kicks in after next season, Vladař will only rank 21st in terms of goaltender AAV. If he continues to play anywhere like he did last year, when he finished sixth in the Vezina and even received MVP votes, for even half this deal, that would represent one heck of a bargain and maybe, just maybe, another parade down Broad Street some day.