In many Stanley Cup winning teams of the past few decades, there has been a great or very good goalie to go along with them. Perhaps this is another reason why the Flyers have not won the Cup for a long time. The last time the Flyers had a brilliant goalie was when Ron Hextall was on the team.
Don’t get me wrong, Martin Biron is a good goalie. However, he is not the type of goalie that is sought after when a team is building a Stanley Cup Champion. That being said, let’s look at the top two goalies in the Flyers’ organization, and the up and coming talent at this important position in hockey:
Starting Goalie:
Martin Biron, G, $3.5 million- 62 GP, 3539 Min, 2.59 GAA, 30-20-9, 5 SO, .918 SVP- Biron is a very capable goalie, and Flyers’ fans saw that last season when he carried them to the Eastern Conference Finals, what seemed single-handedly (even though it wasn’t). His acrobatics and his unbelievable clutch play earned the Flyers a spot in the Final Four for the first time since 2004, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven games.
Unfortunately, they were unable to beat the mighty Penguins, but that can be understood, since Marty Biron cannot be expected to stop Sid, Geno, and the rest of the Pens, especially when top defenseman Kimmo Timonen was injured.
However, he is capable of putting up a 35-win season next year, and putting the Flyers in a position to get home advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Backup Goalie:
Antero Niittymaki, G, $1.225 million- 28 GP, 1424 Min, 2.91 GAA, 12-9-2, 1 SO, .907 SVP- Niitty has not been the same since the 2006 Turin Olympics, in which he lost the gold medal game to rival Henrik Lundqvist and Team Sweden. He is not the same clutch goaltender that he was beforehand, which ultimately led to the trade that brought Marty Biron to Philadelphia.
Niitty does not need to be a star goalie for this team. He simply needs to be counted on to be consistent when he plays his 25-30 games this year. He needs to be able to put up at least 15 wins in those games he plays, although I do not believe that he will.
Look out for:
Brad Phillips, 19 years old. Phillips is a very young goalie who was taken in the seventh round last year by the Flyers. He posted a .917 save percentage and a 2.18 goals against average last year in 11 games. He is a great young guy who at some point in the next 3-4 years will be brought up to the AHL to train to take over for Martin Biron when he retires. Look for this to happen by 2014.
Predictions:
GP W L OL GAA SVP SO
Martin Biron 62 35 18 5 2.42 .918 6
Antero Nittymaki 26 12 10 2 2.93 .902 1
8 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Miah D. 10 months ago
Biron has always been a little question mark for me, but I guess if he proved to anyone what he did last year, he can be a reliable goalie. after all, he got into his bubble (as they say in french), all good for the flyers.
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Timothy W 10 months ago
5 games Miah....
just kidding, I have love for the habs too!
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Miah D. 10 months ago
I know! lol!
somehow I knew our teams would meet that round! well, Biron was by far the best goalie on the ice (he clearly supplanted the two others = price + halak)
still, thanks for the thought to the Habs!
:)
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Nelson Santos 10 months ago
Flyers should be able to ice a good enough team to win with Biron in goal. If he plays like he did in the 2008 playoffs the Flyers would be lucky to have that level of goaltending.
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francisco devinney 10 months ago
Hopefully a healthy dose of both Biron and Nitty will get us into a top 4 spot come playoffs time. Nitty had flashes of 2006 last year, but always seems to let in a soft goal that would really demoralize the team. Not that either are "elite", here's hoping that they can stay consistent enough to get us into the playoffs.
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KP Wee 10 months ago
Ron Hextall was "brilliant" for maybe a couple of seasons. The rest of the time he was mediocre or letting in soft goals.
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Timothy W 10 months ago
I'll never forget Brian Boucher's* (spelling?) rookie season play-off run with the flyers, he was amazing,
his sophmore year was horrible and he never bounced back,
lets hope Biron won't do the same,
and please, never ever remind me of Checkmanek*(spelling again)
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Ben Livingston 10 months ago
With both goalie's contracts expiring this year, it should be very interesting to see how the Flyers go forward in the goaltending position. Given the choices next off-season I'm pretty sure they'll stick with Biron, but how long they will choose to do so (i.e. the length of the contract) is quite unclear.
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