Christian Dvorak’s faceoff dominance, Dan Vladar’s Johnny Gaudreau mask, and more about the Flyers’ free agent signings
The Flyers added several new players on Tuesday. Here’s what you need to know.
The Flyers got busy right at the start of NHL free agency, bringing in center Christian Dvorak on a one-year deal after four seasons with Montreal.
Dvorak gives the Flyers, who also added defenseman Noah Juulsen on Tuesday, an additional boost down the middle after the team traded for Trevor Zegras in June, shoring up what was their second-weakest position group in 2024-25. Shortly after, the team signed Flames goalie Dan Vladar to a two-year deal to bolster their league-worst goaltending.
Here are five things to know about the new additions …
Dvorak and Juulsen played for Rick Tocchet
The common thread for the Flyers’ first two free agent additions, Dvorak and Juulsen, is their history with new head coach Rick Tocchet. Dvorak played for Tocchet for four seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, from 2017-21.
Dvorak played the best season of his NHL career under Tocchet in 2020-21, scoring 17 goals in 56 games. Meanwhile, Juulsen played under the new Flyers bench boss for parts of three seasons in Vancouver, appearing in 101 games with Tocchet at the helm.
» READ MORE: Flyers sign goalie Dan Vladar, depth center Christian Dvorak shortly after NHL free agency opens
Dvorak is reliable defensively
In Arizona, Tocchet deployed Dvorak as a shutdown defensive center.
Dvorak is “a really good 200-foot player, he plays his own end very well,” Tocchet told The Athletic in 2021. “When he’s at his best, he scores goals around the net. If you watch a lot of his goals, it’s 15 feet out. He’s got that quick release, but he also gets a lot of rebounds and tip goals too. Those are important goals. Those are hard to find, those type of players that are willing to go into the paint, into the middle of the ice a lot.”
Dvorak is great at faceoffs
The Flyers have one of the league’s best faceoff men in Sean Couturier, who won 56% of his faceoffs last year. But of Flyers who took more than 100 faceoffs last year, only Couturier, Morgan Frost, and Ryan Poehling won over 50% at the dot, and Frost and Poehling are no longer on the team. New addition Zegras is notoriously weak at faceoffs, winning just 40.1% of them in his career.
Dvorak should help shore that up. He’s won 53.1% of the faceoffs he’s taken, including 55.8% in 2024-25. His only season under 50% at the dot was his rookie season in 2016-17.
Vladar played a career-high 30 games in 2024-25
Vladar started his career in Boston before being traded to Calgary in 2021. Since then, he’s backed up Jacob Markstrom and rookie Dustin Wolf, playing 20 to 30 games in each of his four seasons with the Flames.
He’s probably not the Flyers’ long-term answer in net, but he’s been consistent over his five NHL seasons, with a career 2.99 GAA and .895 save percentage. That might not seem like a lot, but the Flyers’ three goalies in 2024-25 averaged a .879 save percentage and gave up 3.45 goals per game. Vladar’s 2.80 GAA and .898 save percentage in 2024-25 outperformed all three goalies on the Flyers’ roster last year.
Vladar honored the Gaudreau brothers on his mask in 2024-25
Vladar played with Johnny Gaudreau in 2021-22 in Calgary, before Gaudreau left in free agency to join the Blue Jackets. After Gaudreau, a Salem County native, died in August 2024, Vladar commissioned a custom goalie mask honoring Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, to wear for the Flames’ games against the Blue Jackets. He later auctioned off the mask to raise money for the Flames Foundation.