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Flyers Must Consider Top Goalies in 2026 NHL Draft
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- Flyers Must Consider Top Goalies in 2026 NHL Draft
When it comes to the Philadelphia Flyers ' prospect pool, something that is not discussed nearly often enough is the lack of long-term goaltending depth.
Fortunately, with Dan Vladar emerging as a legitimate NHL starting goalie, the Flyers won't have to worry too much about the present day, but the future is still blurry.
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While the book isn't closed on him yet, Aleksei Kolosov does not appear to have a clear path to a future with the Flyers at the NHL level, and Carson Bjarnason, in his first full season as a pro player, struggled after a decent start in the AHL.
That leaves the Flyers with the promising but enigmatic Egor Zavragin, who was just traded to a new KHL team and is set to sign a one-year contract extension overseas.
In the 2025 NHL Draft, the Flyers had plenty of opportunities to draft top-tier talents with their spare first- and second-round picks, but those selections were instead allocated to produce Jack Nesbitt, Matthew Gard, Shane Vansaghi, Jack Murtagh, and Carter Amico.
Top goaltending prospects they could have gotten instead include Joshua Ravensbergen , Semyon Frolov, Alexei Medvedev, and Jack Ivankovic.
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Heading into the 2026 NHL Draft, the goalie class looks a bit weaker than normal, though the Flyers still have plenty of options to consider.
Chief among those is USHL Youngstown Phantoms goalie Tobias Trejbal, ranked 34th overall in the class by EliteProspects and compared to Dan Vladar.
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Trejbal, 18, is a hulking 6-foot-5, right-catching goalie who would be the first of his kind in Philadelphia since Steve Mason (or Mike McKenna, or Cal Petersen...)
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The Czech netminder is an above-average athlete who is already well refined for his age and experience, though, as is the case with many big, athletic goalies, his reads and play tracking will need to continue to improve.
But, from the Flyers' perspective, if that's all they feel really need to work on with Trejbal, then he's a slam-dunk selection if Philadelphia trades back in the first round or moves up to the top of the second.
Oh, and this excerpt from Daily Faceoff's Steven Ellis from his NHL Draft Combine notebook on Trejbal was exceptional:
"I remember Montreal asked me some weird questions," Trejbal said.
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"Like, 'If you were in the Sahara and there were two guys, one had a bottle of water and the other had a baseball bat. What would you do?' So, their guy told me, 'I have a wife at home. I have kids at homes like, are you gonna really kill me?' I said, 'Yeah, your family is at home. They're safe, and I have my whole life in front of me, and I want to play in NHL, so I will smack you with the baseball bat.'"
On the topic of projects, WHL Medicine Hat Tigers goalie Carter Casey, like Bjarnason, is a superb athlete playing in the Western league, though he isn't very refined at all.
But, with Kolosov, Bjarnason, and Vladar holding things down for now, the Flyers can afford to be patient with someone like the 18-year-old Casey.
Casey could be a riskier investment early in the second round, but the Flyers, who own the 53rd overall pick, could easily justify that chance.
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Also in the WHL is Harrison Boettiger of the Kelowna Rockets, who is more of an average athlete but a master of positioning himself and being where he needs to be to make any kind of save.
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Boettiger would be a safer, lower-ceiling option for the Flyers than the other two, and some teams might value that more than others.
Where the Flyers are, I would put Boettiger below Trejbal and Casey.
Because the Flyers don't have fourth- or fifth-round picks, we'll jump lower down the list, where we find another Czech goalie in Michal Orsulak.
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A righty like Trejbal, Orsulak is massive at 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, and went 24-4-4 with the WHL's Prince Albert Raiders to the tune of a .907 save percentage, 2.22 GAA, and four shutouts.
Orsulak was actually ranked above Trejbal and Casey by NHL Central Scouting , placing second in their North American goalie rankings behind only Brady Knowling.
EliteProspects is a bit lower on the 18-year-old, as he is unranked on their 2026 draft guide, so we can expect some variance in where he goes later this month.
Anywhere between the third and fifth rounds is a good spot for Orsulak, who has plenty of potential worthy of tempting the Flyers to trade up or invest early.
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One last goalie that everyone seems to have forgotten about, and is certainly worth following towards the end of the draft, is Latvian netminder Linards Feldbergs.
You may remember Feldbergs as the goalie who dominated for a poor Latvia team at the 2025 U20 World Juniors, where he went 2-3-0 with a 3.13 GAA but a jaw-dropping .929 save percentage.
The 20-year-old over-ager has put up numbers everywhere he's gone, and his playoff numbers with the QMJHL Sherbrooke Phoenix and USHL Sioux Falls Stampede only further prove that he steps up when the lights get brighter.
Feldbergs is committed to the NCAA's Merrimack College for the 2026-27 season, and while no major colleges or NHL teams have given him a shot, his athleticism, resolve, and lunch-pail mentality should be enough to put him on the Flyers' radar late in the draft.
