- Dan Vladar left the Flyers’ preseason game in Boston with an upper-body injury at 13:31 of the first period
- Philadelphia ruled him out for the rest of the night and Aleksei Kolosov finished the game
- Read below for the play that hurt him, his history with that same arm and what it means six days from opening night
The Flyers watched their most important player skate off holding his arm.
Dan Vladar exited Tuesday night’s preseason game against the Bruins at TD Garden with an upper-body injury 13:31 into the first period. Philadelphia ruled him out for the rest of the night midway through the second.
Vladar stopped a dump-in, the puck skipped away from him, and he was down on the ice reaching for it when Tanner Jeannot crashed the net and lifted his skate over the goalie’s right arm. There was not much force to it. Vladar let go of his stick immediately.
Michael Eyssimont deflected the next shot past him to put Boston up 1-0.
Philadelphia’s goalie got back to his feet, then skated to the bench hunched over and spoke with the training staff before heading down the tunnel. Aleksei Kolosov played the rest of the way. Vladar finished with six saves on seven shots.
Rick Tocchet said at morning skate that the plan was two periods for Vladar and the third for Kolosov. He got 13 minutes.
That right arm has been a problem before. In Game 3 of the first round last spring, Bryan Rust caught Vladar’s hand with a knee while cutting across the crease. He stayed in the game and did not miss a start the rest of the playoffs, but the injury kept him off Czechia’s roster for the World Championship in May.
Losing him for any real stretch would gut this team. Vladar went 29-14-7 with a 2.42 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage in 52 games last season, all career highs, and he dragged the Flyers to their first playoff berth since 2020. He was even better in the postseason at 2.18 and .922 with two shutouts in 10 starts.
The club signed him to a five-year, $27.5 million extension on July 1 that kicks in for 2027-28.
Asked last Friday whether he was carrying that season into this one, Vladar brushed it off.
“Nothing’s older than yesterday’s newspapers. It’s part of life, nobody cares what you did last year. You’ve just got to take it day by day, week by week, game by game, period by period, shot after shot.”
Joseph Woll and Kolosov are the depth behind him. Forward Denver Barkey is already day-to-day with a lower-body injury, and the regular season opens next Wednesday.
Camp picks back up Wednesday, which is when the Flyers should have something more specific.
