While prospects develop, the Flyers are in a goaltender quandary

Before the NHL season, the goaltending duo of Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth figured to be one of the Flyers' strengths.

It turned out to be one of their most glaring weaknesses.

In many of the Flyers' losses this season, their goaltender was soundly outplayed by their counterpart, and that played a major role in the team's missing the playoffs for the third time in the last five years.

After Tuesday's game, the Flyers were 20th out of the 30 NHL teams in goals-against average at 2.83 per game.

In addition, they were tied for 26th in save percentage at .901. Only Winnipeg (.899), Dallas (.895), and Colorado (.894) - three teams that also won't be in the playoffs - were worse. The league's top four teams in save percentage are considered strong Stanley Cup contenders: Columbus (.924), Washington (.922), Chicago (.919), and Montreal (.919).

It should be noted that save percentage, in a way, is a team statistic. Because the Flyers did a poor job of clearing the crease, opponents had more golden scoring chances than teams with strong defenses, and that had a direct effect on the team's save percentage and goals-against average.

The hope is that when some of the up-and-coming defensemen (Sam Morin, Travis Sanheim, Phil Myers, Robert Hagg) are NHL-ready - and they are knocking on the door - they will, in effect, make the goaltenders look better.

That said, the Flyers goalies had disappointing seasons. Their struggles leave lots of questions for general manager Ron Hextall to ponder in the off-season:

Which goalie will Hextall protect in the June expansion draft and which one will he expose to the new Vegas team? In a recent Inquirer Twitter poll that had 1,395 respondents, 93 percent said they would protect Anthony Stolarz, while 7 percent voted for Neuvirth.

Will Hextall try to re-sign Mason, a prospective free agent?

If Hextall bypasses Mason, will he explore a free-agent market that could include Ben Bishop, Brian Elliott, Jonathan Bernier, and Flyer-killer Keith Kinkaid?

Will Stolarz or Alex Lyon be with the Flyers next season?

Hextall has a couple of months to figure things out. He also has comfort in knowing he has several promising goaltenders in the system, including Stolarz, Lyon, Carter Hart, Felix Sandstrom, and Merrick Madsen.

With so many blue-chip goalie prospects on the horizon, Hextall might not feel the need to sign a veteran - whether its Mason, Bishop, Elliott, or someone else - to a long-term contract. He may just need someone to serve as a bridge until, say, Hart or Sandstrom is ready.

Mason carried the Flyers into the playoffs with a strong second half of the season in 2015-16. But he has been up and down this season, compiling a 25-21-8 record with a 2.67 goals-against average and .908 save percentage entering the weekend.

Neuvirth, coming off a career year - and a spectacular showing in the playoffs against Washington - has also been a disappointment. Now sidelined with an injury and illness, he will finish with an 11-11-1 record, a 2.82 goals-against average, and .891 save percentage.

"The biggest issue [with both goalies] was consistency," said one highly regarded NHL scout who asked to remain anonymous. "Mason went on that 10-game run and was outstanding. But then you get into games where you need one big save and one soft one leaks through.

"If you look throughout the league, the teams that have the average goaltending are the teams that are on the outside looking in" at the playoff qualifiers, he said.

Adding insult to the Flyers' goaltender problems: Columbus' Sergei Bobrovsky is favored to win his second Vezina Trophy, awarded to the league's premier goalie. The Flyers sent Bobrovsky to the Blue Jackets in a 2012 deal that, indirectly, was triggered by the late club chairman, Ed Snider, and his insistence on bringing in a new goalie, Ilya Bryzgalov, the previous season.

The scout said "most of the games are decided by one goal, and when your goalie is solid, you win the one-goal games. When they're not, you lose them."

The Flyers are 20-18 in one-goal games. That's passable but not at the level of the Stanley Cup contenders.

"My biggest issue with them," the scout said of the Flyers goalies, "is that they've just been too inconsistent."

The same can be said for the entire team.

"I think everyone at the end of the year has to look in the mirror and hold themselves accountable and understand as a whole and as individuals we have to be better," Mason said.

Mason said his season was odd because of the way he was used.

"There have been times when you're playing lots of hockey, and other times where you're sitting on the bench for extended periods of time," he said.

Mason didn't play well at the start of the season. He and Neuvirth divided the time in the first month, and Mason admitted that not knowing who was the No. 1 goalie affected his play.

"When you look back, there have been stretches where I haven't been happy with my play. But I also believe that, given the opportunity to have a workload, I think for the most part I've done a pretty good job of that," he said.

The scout said Mason and Neuvirth are good enough to take a team into the playoffs but not necessarily capable of a long Stanley Cup run.

Hextall doesn't permit the media to talk to any of the team's assistants, including goalie coach Kim Dillabaugh. But head coach Dave Hakstol defended his goaltenders.

"Every stat, no matter how you want to look at it, is a team statistic," he said. "I think we've gotten very good goaltending, especially over the last month and a half while we've been playing well. They go hand in hand. Every part of your team has to be doing their job and doing it well in order to play well as a team and get results."

Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere agreed.

"I would never blame anything on our goalies," said Gostisbehere, who struggled at the beginning of the season but regained his mojo down the stretch. "There are people playing in front of them, and we could have played better."

On March 1, the Flyers signed Neuvirth, who could have become an unrestricted free agent, to a two-year extension for a total of $5 million.

Oddly, right around the time of the signing, Mason became the No. 1 goalie.

Mason said it was "the first time where I've really felt I've been given the ball to play lots of games" when both goaltenders were healthy. That put him "in a comfortable position where you feel like even if you don't have a strong game you go right back in, and that's huge."

Mason, 28, can become an unrestricted free agent, and he said his agent hasn't been contacted during the season. He has gotten on a roll lately, going 9-5-2 with a 2.15 goals-against average and .933 save percentage in his last 16 games before Saturday, and that should help his bargaining position.

As for Neuvirth, there has been some speculation the Flyers will trade him to Vegas or leave him unprotected so the Golden Knights can claim him.

The speculation stems from the fact that Vegas general manager George McPhee was in Washington when Neuvirth played there. So was David Prior, who is now Vegas' goalie coach.

If the Flyers do protect the 29-year-old Neuvirth, Stolarz isn't likely to be selected by Vegas.

Hextall isn't tipping his hand as to which goalie he will protect or whether he will make an offer to Mason.

Mason sounds as if he is going to explore the free-agent market, saying he has no regrets about his time in Philadelphia if, in fact, his tenure here has ended. On Thursday, he thanked Jeff Reese and Dillabaugh, his goalie coaches with the Flyers, for improving his game.

"I'm a much better goaltender from any point in the Columbus part of my career," he said. "I'm proud of everything I've been able to accomplish here. I've been fortunate to work with two great goaltender coaches. . . . I've never been closer with the players on any of my teams."

Asked if he wanted to stay with the Flyers, as he stated earlier in the season, Mason seemed to waver.

"We're going to obviously see what the organization has to say and play it by ear in the summertime," he said. "A lot can happen between now and free agency" on July 1.

Mason, who is third on the Flyers' all-time wins list with 103 victories, wants to go into next season feeling as if he is a team's No. 1 goaltender.

"When you have that kind of confidence and security, I think it helps," he said.

scarchidi@phillynews.com

@BroadStBull www.philly.com/flyersblog