Philadelphia Flyers: 1 stat that showcases the goalie issues

Nobody saves more than Bernie Parent but in terms of wins for Philadelphia Flyers goalies, Ron Hextall has more. It’s not by a lot. Hextall won 240 games for the Flyers with Parent finishing in second with 231.

It’s a nice combination of players to have at the top of the franchise’s list of goalie wins. Without looking, can you guess who is third?

The Flyers have had a ton of goalie issues over the years. Most of all, they haven’t been able to keep a guy consistently for long enough to win over 100 games with the team with only one exception. Third on the franchise’s list of goalie wins is, to the surprise of everyone, Steve Mason.

The Philadelphia Flyers goalie issue is represented well with Steve Mason having the third-most wins in team history.

Mason won 104 games for the team from 2013-2017. The 104-78-36 record is solid and yet he doesn’t seem like the third best goalie in club history. Is he?

Mason’s .918 save percentage is behind only Roman Cechmanek among goaltenders with at least 10 games played. It’s a point above Parent who finished his tenure with the Flyers with a .917 save percentage.

Could it be that Mason really is one of the greatest Flyers goalies of all-time? A statistic like save percentage is like home runs in baseball or touchdown passes in football or even three-pointers in basketball. It depends on the era.

While in Philadelphia, Mason had win totals of 4 (only 7 games played), 33, 18, 23, and 26. He helped take the Flyers to the playoffs twice. He only won two postseason games for them—both in the 2013-2014 season.

The tenure of Mason was incredible anticlimactic in this regard. He didn’t have the Stanley Cups that Parent did. He didn’t have an amazing postseason run like Hextall. Mason falls into the category of “regular season compiler” at least in terms of wins. More importantly, his placement third in franchise history for goalie victories represents how many times the Flyers have missed at filling the position. Wins aren’t everything for a goalie. It’s just a representation of how few goalies have stuck around for long. And that’s a problem.

Early results from Carter Hart haven’t fulfilled what many had hoped he could accomplish. The team around him deserves plenty of the blame but even his individual performance hasn’t been spectacular. Although it’s the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback scrutinized more than any other position in the city, the Flyers goalie is a close second.

There is a reason why the Flyers haven’t won a Stanley Cup in a half-century. The answer is between the pipes.