Flames goaltender to undergo season-ending hip surgery

Flames netminder Daniel Vladar will undergo season-ending surgery on his hip, per the team. Vladar, who missed three games in February with what the team termed a lower-body injury, is expected to recover by the start of the 2024-25 season. No corresponding recall will be made as starter Jacob Markstrom, who missed the last four games with a lower-body injury, “has been cleared for full practice and game participation.”

Vladar, 26, had the worst season of his career in 2023-24, although this news offers a plausible explanation as Sportsnet’s Eric Francis reports the goalie “has needed hip surgery for a while.” 

His only IR stint this year came during February’s absence. With no roster limit in effect after the trade deadline, there’s little reason for the Flames to move Vladar to IR for the rest of the season to open up a roster spot. While LTIR is also an option given the length of his absence, that’s also unlikely as the team has over $10M in cap space and likely won’t need the relief provided by Vladar’s $2.2M cap hit.

He ends 2023-24 with 19 starts, an 8-9-2 record, a .882 SV%, and a 3.62 GAA — his worst numbers since the Flames acquired him from the Bruins in 2021. However, it likely won’t be his last chance to prove himself in Calgary. 

Markstrom is a likely candidate to get traded this summer after waiving his no-move clause before the deadline for a trade to the Devils that ultimately fell through, opening a spot for Vladař to remain on the roster alongside top prospect Dustin Wolf. 2024-25 is the second and final season of the extension he signed with the club in 2022, and he’s set to earn the same base salary as his cap hit implies.

Vladar’s injury means the Flames do not need to modify Wolf’s emergency loan, which they used to bring him up from AHL Calgary when Markstrom got hurt. Without two other healthy goaltenders on the active roster, Wolf can remain with the Flames on an emergency loan for the remainder of the season and keep Calgary from burning one of their two remaining post-trade deadline standard recalls. Vladar wasn’t likely to get much action down the stretch anyway, having been pulled for Wolf in his last appearance on March 12 against the Avalanche.