Sergei Bobrovsky is a two-time winner of the Vezina Trophy, voted as the best goalie in the NHL, and has helped the Florida Panthers reach the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight season.
He’s the winningest goalie all-time among players born in Russia with 396, and he’s four victories away from becoming the 14th NHL goalie with 400.
About the only thing the 35-year-old hasn’t won in his 14 seasons is the Stanley Cup, and to get there he’s having to go through the person who gave him his start in the NHL, New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, in the Eastern Conference Final.
The Panthers lead the best-of-7 series 3-2 with Game 6 at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).
Long before he became one of the top goalies in the NHL, Bobrovsky was a 22-year-old rookie with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010-11, hoping to play for Laviolette, then in his second season as Flyers coach.
Philadelphia had signed the undrafted Bobrovsky on May 6, 2010, a move that was overshadowed the following day by the beginning of the Flyers’ historic comeback from being down 3-0 against the Boston Bruins to win the Eastern Confernence Semifinals in seven games.
The unheralded goalie arrived in Philadelphia ahead of training camp in 2010, and it didn’t take long for him to make an impression.
“First met him in a skate with [goalie coach] Jeff Reese in probably the latter half of August,” said Brian Boucher, a Flyers goalie at the time and now a hockey analyst for TNT and the Flyers. “I remember I turned to Jeff Reese after about 20 minutes and I said, ‘Uh-oh, I’m in trouble.’
“My first impression was this kid was a stud and I’d yet to see anybody move like that and have the flexibility and agility, all that good stuff. Maybe the only thing he lacked, and still lacks, is probably that killer size (6-foot-2, 188 pounds). He’s not the size of (Tampa Bay Lightning Andrei) Vasilevskiy (6-4, 220), but as far as pure athleticism and skating ability, agility, it was the best I’d ever been on the ice with at one time.”
Philadelphia general manager Daniel Brière, a forward on that Flyers team, also said he had no idea who Bobrovsky was prior to training camp but learned pretty quick.
“I remember him coming out of nowhere, but being good,” Briere said. “We didn’t know who he was. I remember thinking how fast this kid was down low.”
Bobrovsky was expected to begin his time in North America in the American Hockey League, but an injury to Michael Leighton opened an NHL spot, and Bobrovsky began the season partnered with Boucher.
“He was young, he came in and he was a great goaltender,” Laviolette said. “He worked on his game constantly. A tireless worker, really good person.”
Most coaches will defer to their goalie coach when it comes to playing time, especially in a rotation like Philadelphia planned with Boucher and Bobrovsky. But Reese said Laviolette was the main driver to start Bobrovsky in the opener.
“I have to give Pete the credit there,” said Reese, now the goaltending coach for the Dallas Stars. “He recognized … obviously coming off the camp (Bobrovsky) did and then the fact that just the maturity of him, he thought he could handle it. And look what happened. He had no problems. I have to say it was Pete for that first game.
“I don’t think anybody saw that coming. But ‘Lavi’ at the time, he just liked the way ‘Bob’ went about his business, very professional, very mature for a young age.”
Bobrovsky made 29 saves in Philadelphia’s 3-2 victory.
“I think he was very good in camp and earned a look,” Briere said. “We didn’t know how good he was yet still at that point. To me, that was the game that I started realizing that he was the real deal.”
Bobrovsky finished his rookie season 28-13-8 with a 2.59 goals-against average and .915 save percentage in 54 regular-season games. Beyond the results, it was Bobrovsky’s work ethic that earned the respect of his teammates and coaches.
“That’s what I remember of him, the amount of time spent on honing his craft, the amount of time spent in the gym, stretching and working on himself,” Briere said. “I remember that. He’s always early at the rink, was always the last one to leave, and you come back in the afternoon and he was still at the gym. There’s a reason why he’s still playing at a high caliber today. It did feel like he lived at the rink. He was always there.”
He also endeared himself away from the rink. Though Bobrovsky couldn’t speak English, he was able to showcase his personality in unique ways.
“Those slippers you get in hotels? I think he’d steal them and he’d be wearing the slippers on the plane,” Boucher said. “He’d have a pair of Four Seasons slippers on his feet. That was before he was making the big bucks. I’m sure his slipper game has stepped up since then.”
With Bobrovsky leading the way, the Flyers finished first in the Atlantic Division and faced the Buffalo Sabres in the first round of the playoffs.
Bobrovsky got the start in Game 1 and made 24 saves in a 1-0 loss. In Game 2 he allowed three goals on seven shots and Laviolette pulled him 12:30 into the game. Boucher started four of the next five games with Michael Leighton the backup and Bobrovsky scratched until returning as the backup to Boucher for Game 7, which Philadelphia won 5-2.
In the second round against the Boston Bruins, Boucher started the first three games but Bobrovsky replaced him in each game. With the Flyers behind 3-0 in the series, Bobrovsky started Game 4, making 22 saves in a 5-1 season-ending loss.
Despite the revolving door in the Philadelphia goal during that postseason run, Bobrovsky never showed any frustration.
“I think he ran out of gas a little bit that first year,” Reese said. “I really do. But as far as his attitude, it was terrific all season long. He just wanted to play. He wanted to play every game. The great ones want to play every night, they want to be in there, they want to make a difference every night.”
That offseason, the Flyers traded for goalie Ilya Bryzgalov and signed him to a nine-year contract. Bobrovsky, seeing his future as a starter limited, was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets after the 2011-12 season.
Bobrovsky’s career took off in Columbus. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2013 and 2017, and helped the Blue Jackets win their only playoff series, a first-round upset of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019.
Now in his fifth season with Florida, he leads all playoff goalies with 11 wins and his 2.27 GAA is third among goalies to play at least 12 games this postseason.
And to Laviolette, he still looks like the same driven, determined goalie he had in Philadelphia all those years ago.
“Because I had him as a young player in Philly I’ve watched him grow,” Laviolette said. “The years that he had in Columbus and now in Florida, he’s proven to be a top goaltender in the League. But he was a guy who worked every day on the ice. He wanted to get better at his craft and he did.”
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report
