How is Dan Vladar feeling as he prepares for the biggest opportunity of his NHL career?
The Calgary Flames goaltender doesn’t reply with “good” or “great.”
Something better.
“I’m pain-free,” he reported with a wide smile.
And when was the previous time that Vladar could say that?
He ponders the question for a moment, as if he’s flipping through a calendar in his head, trying to remember the start of that persistent soreness in his hip.
As it worsened, it would even bother him as he was driving or climbing a set of stairs. He’s hoping that discomfort is permanently in his rearview mirror after surgery in March.
“I always had my right side a little bit tighter but the last two seasons, it was painful a lot,” Vladar said. “So then I just spent all my time at the rink to basically warm myself up, just on the right side. I couldn’t focus on anything else. So I was just trying to battle through it and then I’m happy we made that decision and I went for it.
“I think for my future, for my career, it was the right decision.”
When Flames fans talk about the future at the puck-stopping position, they’re mostly howling about prized prospect Dustin Wolf, who capped the 2023-24 campaign by winning four consecutive starts.
With Jacob Markstrom traded in June to the New Jersey Devils, the 23-year-old Wolf should finally be a full-timer this fall.
There also has been some excitement about the summer signing of Devin Cooley, who appeared in six games last season with the San Jose Sharks and is projected third on the depth chart in Calgary. The staff at the Saddledome believe the late-blooming Cooley — he turned 27 shortly before joining the Flames on a two-year contract — arrives with plenty of untapped potential.
Just don’t forget that Vladar, 27, enters training camp as the frontrunner to land the starting job. He was shut down in late March so he could immediately undergo surgery and be fully recovered for the coming campaign.
The six-month mark is right around the corner and, as he put it, “that is about the time that I should be 100 per cent and that’s how I feel, as well.”
“That’s what I was working for since Day 1 that I got here,” said Vladar, the backup to Markstrom for the past three winters, of the chance to solidify himself as a No. 1 netminder. “I just hope I did everything right and that I’m ready for this opportunity.
“It drives all of us. You know that if you’re going to keep playing well, you’re going to play. And if not, there’s another one or two goalies — good goalies — that are going to try to do the same thing as you. I mean, nothing is changing for us. The only thing is you don’t have one of the best goalies in the league, that’s Jacob Markstrom, in front of you.
“But I think everybody is pumped about the new season. We just can’t wait.”
For the first time in a long time, likely back to the days of Jonas Hiller and Karri Ramo, there’s genuine intrigue about who will be tending twine for the Flames on opening night.
Vladar, with 66 big-league starts to his credit, is the known commodity in this crease competition. And yet, with the revelation that his hip injury had lingered for 24-plus months, you wonder if what we think we know about him is entirely true.
Is it possible that his sub-par stat line last season — including a leaky .882 save percentage, the worst of his career — can be blamed on a wonky hip?
Asked if the injury has hindered his performance, if it’s prevented him from maximizing the skill set that led the Flames to target him in a trade in 2021, Vladar refused the easy excuse, but didn’t exactly rule it out, either.
“It’s hard to say, right?” he replied. “I always tried my 100 per cent, so I don’t regret anything. Obviously, you don’t want to lose your job. You don’t want to step away. You just want to keep battling. So everything I’ve done, I did it 100 per cent, but I just hope now I’m going to have no limitations and I can just only focus on getting better and getting my team better.”
The Flames will hit the ice next Thursday for their first training camp sessions, the start of what is undoubtedly the most important season of Vladar’s career to date.
A chance to prove he can be a starter in the best league in the world.
A chance to push for a nice payday as he approaches unrestricted free agency — this is the final year of his current contract, which carries an annual cap-hit of $2.2 million US.
And the best part: A chance to play pain-free.
It has been a while.
“When I first stepped on the ice, I was a little bit nervous about it,” said Vladar, who resumed skating in July with Jaromir Jagr’s pro squad in Kladno, Czechia. “But it’s completely different and it’s way better.
“The first thing that comes up in my mind is going down and not feeling any pain. That’s gone away, so that’s great. I’m super pumped up about that.”