The Reoccurring Case of Flames Goaltender Burnout

The Calgary Flames have been struggling to find consistent goaltending since the days of Mikka Kiprusoff.

When they signed Jacob Markstrom in the 2020 offseason, they got themselves as close as they’ve been in recent years to top-of-the-league caliber goaltending. He’s got a lot of talent, but have the Flames pushed him too hard?

2021-22 Regular Season

Jacob Markstrom played an exceptional season that put him in the top three finalists for the Vezina Trophy. He played 63 games with the Flames this year and finished the regular season with a 37-15-9 record. His goals-against average was 2.22 and his save percentage finished at .922.

Dan Vladar was also a solid backup option for the Flames this year after playing five games for the Boston Bruins in 2020-21 as well as spending some time in the Czech league and the AHL.

He made a more permanent jump to the NHL with the Flames and got his first season of a more regular goaltending role.

Are the Flames pushing their top goalies too hard?

Vladar played 23 games with the Flames this year and finished with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage through the regular season. His record was 13-6-2.

Vladar was a trusted number two and was able to slide in without interrupting team momentum when Jacob Markstrom missed some games for injury maintenance. However, his involvement in the postseason was very minimal.

Playoffs

Where some teams have been able to split the workload in playoffs, Markstrom did not have that luxury. He didn’t even have the chance.

Dan Vladar proved to be a solid backup during the regular season, but only got 20 minutes of ice time in the playoffs. Jacob Markstrom played 712 minutes in 12 games.

It is not uncommon for the top goaltender to carry the weight in the postseason but they should still be able to take a night off on a back-to-back or following a tough loss or satisfactory performance.

For reference, the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions, the Colorado Avalanche, were able to split their goaltenders 16-7 in games played with Darcy Kuemper playing most of the postseason.

In the 2019-2020 postseason, the Flames relied mostly on Cam Talbot despite the fact he had split the regular season with David Rittich pretty close to evenly. Talbot played 10 games to Rittich’s one.

In the 2018-19 brief playoff run, Mike Smith played all five games while David Rittich sat back and watched. This is not as uncommon in a short playoff run but still repeats a postseason trend we’ve seen in the Flames’ last three playoff appearances.

All of these cases were different but the commonality is in the weighted playing time towards one goaltender, and this often results in weak goals and quick starts from their opponents that are hard to recover from.

Just a Short-Term Solution?

Dan Vladar is signed through next season where he will become a restricted free agent in 2023-24. If he continues the development path he is on, there will be no immediate need to replace him during Jacob Markstrom’s tenure.

However, there is a very solid netminder in the pipeline for the Flames.

Dustin Wolf is a highly-rated Flames prospect who just finished his first full pro year with the Stockton Heat. He was given a wide range of recognition for his AHL play in 2021-22 including the AHL’s goaltender of the year and selections on the All-Rookie and All-Star team.

He had an insane regular-season record, making it all the way until January without losing a game in regulation. His record was 33-9-5 in the regular season with a 2.35 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage.

Dustin Wolf may not be ready to be a regular NHL backup as early as next season, but he could be by the time Vladar’s contract expires.

He has been able to alter his play to the respective leagues and international tournaments he’s participated in but at least one more season of being a starting AHL goaltender could do him a lot of good for his professional development.

The hope is that the Flames protect their goaltending assets and don’t burn them out so much in the regular season that they are unable to perform in the playoffs.

If Markstrom hadn’t had some nagging injury this year, would there have been more of a variance in play between him and Vladar?

Whatever has been working for the Flames in the regular season between the pipes, needs to be managed carefully so it has enough juice to make a better showing for themselves in the postseason.