By Dan Heaning, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
One of the biggest mysteries going into the Philadelphia Flyers 50th season is the state of the goaltending position.
Unlike a good chunk of the half-century prior, this season’s goaltending controversy doesn’t come in the form of the team not having a consistent netminder. On the contrary, the Flyers have two — as long as they can stay healthy — in Steve Mason and Michal Neuvirth.
Instead, it’s about the future of the goaltending position. Both Mason and Neuvirth are entering the last seasons of their current contracts. The same goes for goaltending prospects Anthony Stolarz and Alex Lyon, who will be the goaltending duo for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms after being cut by the big squad on Thursday. However, Stolarz and Lyon will be restricted free agents while Mason and Neuvirth could enter unrestricted free agency.
With an expansion draft looming after this season, general manager Ron Hextall faces a wide range of possibilities at the goaltending position.
However, while some are trying to figure out Hextall’s plan for his goalies, it’ll be this upcoming season that serves as the deciding factor.
If Mason returns to his 2014-15 form, he should earn a contract with the Flyers. Back then, Mason registered the third best single-season save percentage (minimum of 30 games) in the franchise’s history behind arguably one of the franchise’s worst defensive corps. Should Mason come anywhere close to that performance, the Flyers should qualify for the postseason comfortably during the 2016-17 campaign.
On the other hand, if Neuvirth continues his inspired play in the Orange and Black, the same can be said for him. Last season, Neuvirth posted the fifth best single-season save percentage in Flyers history behind only Roman Cechmanek, Mason, Doug Favell and Bernie Parent. He also was the Flyers best player in the playoff series against the Washington Capitals.
What if both goalies play in outstanding fashion? Well, the easy answer would be to re-sign them both, right? Not so fast.
What happens if Stolarz takes a huge step this season? During his 88 minutes of NHL preseason work, Stolarz posted a 1.36 GAA and .944 save percentage. This rock solid performance could indicate he’s one season away from making the jump to the big show. If so, it’s possible Hextall could choose to protect Stolarz in the expansion draft instead of Mason or Neuvirth.
After all, per the rules of the expansion draft, the Flyers must leave one signed goaltender available. Seeing as the Flyers don’t have any at the moment, they’ll have to re-sign at least one to become compliant with the draft.
The Flyers could re-sign both Mason and Neuvirth to short-term contracts with the expectation that they would lose one to the new Las Vegas club. Hextall could also just sign one and continue negotiating with the other past the June 20-21, 2017 expansion draft.
Las Vegas could have some nice choices at goal too. Potentially available goaltenders include Ben Bishop – Tampa Bay will be trying to deal him this season — Matt Murray – who will have to be left unprotected unless the Pittsburgh Penguins request Marc-Andre Fleury waive his no-movement clause and then trade him or trade Murray himself — and Jimmy Howard.
While Mason or Neuvirth would appear to be better choices than Howard, it would seem like the unnamed Las Vegas team would prefer a Neuvirth over a Mason if they landed someone like Murray or Bishop. Neuvirth is nearly a perfect back-up, save for his being prone to injury, as he can spell a goalie like Bishop or Murray should they get hurt and would certainly push them for the starting role.
Mason, on the other hand, would carry too high of a cap to be a decent back-up. The Sin City upper brass would likely want Mason as the starter if they selected him.
However, since the new NHL club will need to pick three goaltenders, a young goalie like Stolarz might be the most desirable of either Philadelphia goalies. Per the rules of the expansion draft, Stolarz could be selected if he is unsigned but is given a qualifying offer if Hextall chooses not to shield him.
Though Lyon could present something of an issue for the protect Stolarz plan. The former Yale University netminder is exempt from the draft, but his status as a potential restricted free agent puts him in an interesting position within the Flyers organization.
In order to lure Lyon away from Yale and other NHL teams, Hextall purposely burned off one year of the goalie’s deal. This allows Lyon to pursue a new deal with more term and money quicker, but also requires the former Bulldog to prove himself that much faster. If he does so this season, could he replace Stolarz as the organization’s goaltender of the future?
Before getting cut, Lyon was off to an even better start than Stolarz. In 90 minutes of work, Lyon posted a 0.67 goals-against average and a .972 save percentage. Now he needs to prove he’s capable of playing a large chunk of professional hockey games. Lyon has only played more than 40 games twice in his career thus far. He played in 48 and 50 games respectively in his two USHL seasons from 2011 to 2013. In college, he played in between 30 and 32 contests in three seasons.
So Lyon should be the Phantoms starting goaltender next season to work on his endurance throughout a whole season. Meanwhile, Stolarz could get the bump to the NHL as a back-up. After that, it all depends on who Hextall thinks fits the mold better: Mason or Neuvirth.
This could all blow up too, especially if one goalie struggles or gets traded.
At this point trying to figure out whether it’ll Mason or Neuvirth, Stolarz or Lyon, or any combination therein is a shot in the dark. With all four goaltenders set to hit free agency in some form after this season, it’ll be their respective performances during this upcoming campaign that determines who’s in Philly, who goes to Lehigh Valley and who could land in Sin City or elsewhere next season.
For now, Flyers and Phantoms fans will hope that all those contract years and stiff competition mean some excellent goaltending for the 2016-17 campaign.
