Will the Flyers Keep a Mason, Neuvirth Platoon?

VOORHEES — In meetings between the goalie and former goalie, the younger one couldn’t believe it.

Steve Mason told Ron Hextall on more than one occasion, “It’s amazing that you were a goalie. You’d never know it.”

The general manager wants goalie pads to be smaller, scoring to increase and he thinks that having a platoon between the pipes can work.

That last one might be the part Mason is most offended by.

The goalie, who turns 29 next month, is without a contract and the Flyers have already inked Michal Neuvirth to a two-year extension. It already looked like the odds are stacked against Mason returning for a fifth training camp with the Flyers and if Hextall wants to keep trying to split the workload close to evenly, Mason won’t be a part of it.

“It doesn’t work. It’s shown throughout the league that it doesn’t work,” Mason said. “Tampa got rid of their situation (with Ben Bishop and Andrei Vasilevskiy). St. Louis got rid of their situation (with Jake Allen and Brian Elliott). It’s got nothing to do with Neuvy and I as people. I’ve got no issue with Neuvy. It just doesn’t work for the goaltending position.”

The final 15 games of Mason’s season were very good, and at that point Neuvirth already had an extension. Mason went 9-4-2 with a 2.22 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.