Finding A Potential Replacement For Flyers’ Alex Lyon Next Season

Without hesitation, I think most fans by now would agree that goaltender Alex Lyon has not quite lived up to the hype that surrounded him at the time he was first signed by then-Flyers general manager Ron Hextall back in 2016. Lyon, who has just finished up his 5^th season as a professional, has only managed to play in 22 NHL games to date. He has only been called upon to join the Flyers when absolutely needed due to an injury to one of the Flyers’ starting goalies. During those outings Lyon has proven to be less-than-stellar when asked to step up and fill in. Over the years Alex’s averages have reached embarrassing highs and his save percentage new lows while playing for the Flyers (such as a 5.07 goals-against-average (G.A.A.) and a .806 save percentage (SV%) in during the 2018-2019 campaign). He managed a career average of 3.21 GAA and .893 SV% in those 22 games played in the NHL. This leaves this goaltender-turned-writer wondering why- after all this time- does this failed prospect signing still have a job? The American Hockey League is supposed to be a place to further develop young talent. Lyon is now 28 years old and, if he does not have what it takes by now to progress his game to the NHL standard on a full-time basis, he most likely never will! Alex is currently acting as nothing more than a blockade that is preventing the Flyers’ other goaltending prospects from taking their game to a professional level. Because of this there is currently no one else in the system who is signed that would be ready to be called up to the NHL next season: Both Kirill Ustimenko and Felix Sandstrom (who are goalies that are signed and within the Flyers’ system already) are still a season or two away from possibly being prepared enough (if ever) to step up to the NHL level.

So, the Flyers must look elsewhere to find an upgradeable replacement for Lyon. One place they should have been scouting lately is the NCAA. The competition level has managed to advance immensely even from the time Alex was patrolling the blue paint at Yale University. There are now more American-born players being taken in the 1^st and 2^nd rounds than ever before and, as with some of these potential signings or trade targets about to be mentioned, there are a growing number of foreign players flocking to the collegiate ranks as well for the chance to be noticed by an NHL club.    

This position of 3^rd goaltender on the team needs to be no longer overlooked or downplayed since it is an important one! Let us not forget the carousal of goaltenders that the Flyers had just a few short years ago when injuries occurred- When the Flyers needed him the most Lyon let this team down. With Alex’s failure to shine when the team was depending on him the Flyers had to go sign free agents and trade for other, more established goaltenders to fill in while their stars were hurt. With that being said, who should the Flyers be calling this off season to upgrade this particularly important role of the backup (to the backup) goaltender? 

The first team Philadelphia might want to call in order to upgrade this position is the Carolina Hurricanes.  They have already seemed to find their next franchise goaltender this season in the 25-year-old Alex Nedeljkovic who is making it look easy so far this post season. Therefore, the Canes might need to fill a few other holes on their roster since their long, ongoing playoff run may cause their free agents to be too costly for their budget and thus decide to go play elsewhere next season. 

Given their good fortune in net, the Canes might be so inclined to trade away the rights to their 2016 3^rd round pick- Canadian born goaltender Jack LaFontaine. This now 23-year-old, who was a Hobey Baker Award Finalist this season for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers, is still unsigned by the Hurricanes. Why would someone like that not be signed yet you might wonder? Well, Carolina has 10 goalies in their system right now; 8 of whom already have a contract. Not to mention the fact that they had three goalies win over 10 games in the NHL this year alone. 

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What makes Jack an immediate threat to break into the NHL is his experience at the collegiate level. As we all played witness to with Spencer Knight of the Florida Panthers being able to jump right into the top league in the world after finishing his season with Boston College this year, LaFontaine (who just finished up his senior season for Minnesota) could do much of the same next season. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s compare numbers, shall we? LaFontaine is ranked 3^rd in the nation in SV% this season with an average of .934 while Spencer Knight is ranked 5^th with a .932 SV%. Even better: Jack is ranked 4^th in the nation with an incredible 1.79 GAA while Spencer managed to rank just 15^th in the NCAA with an average of 2.17. 

To go along with his success, LaFontaine is a born leader which was made evident by his wearing an A on his chest this season. During games Jack could be often seen on the ice rounding up his fellow Gophers in a huddle to give a pre-game pep talk or during an intermission/time out. It doesn’t matter that LaFontaine is confined to the crease during the game either, he finds ways to communicate to his players while on the ice and gets his point across.

As being named a finalist for the league’s best player (Hobey Baker Award), Jack also managed to take home the Mike Richter Award this season that is given to the top collegiate goaltender every year. Oh yeah, and the guy that won that award last season (Jeremy Swayman of the Maine Black Bears) may sound familiar because he won his first ever NHL start this season against the Flyers on April 6^th while playing for the Boston Bruins. 

With a record of 22-7-0 this season for Minnesota (that included 5 shut out victories) Jack has proven he has all the intangibles to succeed in the AHL next year and could even be ready to dress for the Flyers at some point next season if needed. 

Another player who might be a worthy of a look this off season is Filip Lindberg. No, this 22-year-old Finnish born goaltender who was taken by the Minnesota Wild in the 7^th round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft is not a descendant of the great Swedish-born Flyers goaltender Pelle Lindbergh, but he does play like him. Much like LaFontaine, Lindberg is still unsigned and just finished up his junior season at the University of Massachusetts where, thanks to Lindberg’s remarkable play in net, the Minuteman were able to win the Frozen Four Tournament to become this year’s NCAA Division One Men’s Champions. This colligate championship was not Filip’s first time winning on a major stage though: He also took home a gold medal while playing for his native Finland at the U-20 World Junior Championships back in the 2018-2019 season.   

Still doubting this one too, are you? Well, let’s look at Filip’s numbers compared to the new “standard of excellence” which is Spencer Knight. Last season in the NCAA Lindberg ranked 1^st in SV% with a .949 compared to Knight’s 5^th place finish. Filip also finished 1^st in the nation this season in GAA with an unbelievable 1.24 average on the year, in which he only allowed in 19 goals during the entire regular season! Again, Spencer only ranked 15^th in GAA this year. Also, Lindberg finished 3^rd in goalie win percentage this year, winning an astounding .800 or 80% of his starts as compared to Knight’s 5^th place finish, winning .786 percent of his starts.  

This type of season is nothing new for Lindberg though: Through all three seasons Filip has played for UMASS he has never finished a season yet with a GAA over two goals a game, and he has never finished a colligate season in which he has had a save percentage below .927.  In fact, his career average while playing in the NCAA over the past three seasons is a shocking 1.58 GAA that he pairs with a .936 SV%.     

Now the Wild are much in the same situation as Carolina is in the way of goaltending. They have just seemed to find their netminder of the future in 24-year-old Kaapo Kahkonen; and the team moving forward may be focusing more on improving their current roster seeing they had quite the impressive run this season pushing Marc-Andre-Fleury and the Las Vegas Golden Knights to seven games in the first round of the playoffs before being defeated. That situation creates an opportunity for the Flyers to package a player like Nolan Patrick (and/or others) in a potential trade for Lindberg’s rights in order for the Wild to gain NHL-proven assets to better their chances next season. 

Either one of these goaltenders would be an enormous improvement over Lyon next season and should be considered a worthy asset to try and obtain this off season. The Flyers have a wealth of talent at a number of different positions in their system but none that are ready in net for a potential emergency call-up to the NHL next season. Chuck Fletcher needs to put his stamp on this team now! Hextall drafted and signed some great talent which has managed to develop over the years but some of those prospects have not. With the way that Philadelphia finished the season some major shakeups need to occur, and one of those has to be moving on from players who have been in the team’s system for a while and have not yet managed to progress. The epitome of such a player is Alex Lyon, who now has an expiring contract and is just finishing up his 5^th season with the Phantoms. To date, he has still not been able to advance his game to the next level and this past season will hopefully prove to have been his last with the Flyers. There are plenty of promising goaltenders who are deserving of a chance at the Pro level and these two above-mentioned are some of the best among them. They both may only need a few games at the American League level before being ready to make the jump to the NHL on a permanent basis, which would give the Flyers some much-needed reassurance in goal next season. Go get one of these guys Chuck!