What started the year as a tandem arrangement has quickly shifted into a distinct hierarchy in goal for the Calgary Flames.

Dustin Wolf has firmly seized control of the Flames’ No. 1 job over the last month or so, starting all but three games in January thus far and propelling the team up the Western Conference standings. He’s the NHL’s best rookie goaltender in a generation.

On the flip side, Dan Vladar has struggled in a big way. Once thought to be the clear go-to option during Wolf’s NHL incubation, Vladar has instead relinquished primary control of the crease to a guy who’s four years younger and five inches shorter than him.

These days, fans in Calgary relish the opportunity to watch Wolf dart back and forth from post to post, stopping almost every shot he can see and winning games more often than not. But the natural byproduct of that is disappointment whenever No. 32 isn’t between the pipes.

This isn’t new, of course. During the Miikka Kiprusoff years, wins never came easy whenever the Flames turned to the likes of Curtis McElhinney, Henrik Karlsson, Phil Sauvé, or Joey MacDonald. Then again, backups are backups for a reason — they typically have to come in whenever someone gets hurt, or something goes wrong, or their team is playing on back-to-back nights. The best backups find a way to push through all that and get the job done.

Unfortunately, Vladar hasn’t been able to do that. The Flames have now lost the last six games he’s started, and while they haven’t always given him the most run support, he hasn’t exactly paid them back. Vladar has allowed the first goal in each of his last four starts, and it’s come before the midway mark of the first period in the last three. The Flames have fallen behind 1-0 in 14 of Vladar’s 21 games this year — exactly two thirds of the time.

The common refrain about Vladar this year is that he’s been given the tougher assignments, particularly closer to the start of the season. It’s true that he performed quite well against Edmonton, Carolina, and New Jersey in the first few weeks of the year. But he’s also put forth some of his worst performances against teams below or on par with the Flames in the standings: Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Utah, St. Louis, and Vancouver.

Vladar looked shaky from start to finish in the Flames’ 5-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday, bobbling the puck on routine saves and giving up way too much of his net on unscreened shots, doing so most egregiously on Gabe Vilardi’s momentum-killing marker late in the second period. In a game featuring two backup goaltenders that ended with the total chance figures almost even, Vladar surrendered five goals against just 2.06 expected.

Flames head coach Ryan Huska, whose tone in post-game interviews typically ranges between ‘measured’ and ‘diplomatic,’ was unusually direct in his assessment of the goaltending performance against the Jets.

“I actually thought we played a pretty good road game,” Huska said, via Flames TV. “There were certain situations where I thought we could’ve used a save tonight, which isn’t something we’ve said a lot this year.

“When we made mistakes, they were able to capitalize … I thought our effort was where it needed to be, and there were stretches of the game where I thought we did a lot of good things. We just weren’t able to keep them out of our net like we needed to tonight.”

It’s fair to question whether Huska would’ve needed to say any of that if the skaters in front of Vladar had done a better job of finishing. At the same time, how much of it boils down to the Flames just not feeling as confident in their chances with No. 80 behind them? Sure, the Flames pretty much threw in the towel early on in their 8-3 loss to the Lightning back in December, but how much of that had to do with Vladar giving up three goals on four shots in the second period?

Those questions just don’t seem to apply whenever Wolf is in net. And while it’s hardly Vladar’s fault that he’s not at Wolf’s level, he still has a responsibility to perform when called upon. In a league where the average save percentage is currently .901, Vladar is sitting at .886 through 21 games. That puts him in a tie with Tristan Jarry, who just cleared waivers, and ahead of only Alexandar Georgiev (.876) and Philipp Grubauer (.870) among the 41 NHL goaltenders with at least 20 games played this season.

While the Flames may have hoped to recoup the price they paid to get Vladar from the Boston Bruins in any potential deal, it’s hard to imagine them getting anywhere close to a third-rounder for him now. He’s just over six months away from becoming an unrestricted free agent. As good as Wolf is, he can’t play every game. The Flames need to figure out a solution — especially if they plan on mounting a legit playoff push.

One option the Flames have is to recall Devin Cooley, as detrimental as it might be to the Wranglers. The 27-year-old Cooley returned from a brief injury absence Sunday and has been one of the top players in the AHL this season, posting a 17-7-1 record and a .929 save percentage through 26 games. No, AHL results aren’t everything, but the Flames like Cooley and his contract converts into a one-way deal in 2025-26. It’d be fascinating to see what he can do behind this Flames defence.

The Flames might not want to risk losing Vladar on waivers, but his $2.2 million cap hit would likely deter anyone from taking him for free. The Carolina Hurricanes, who had previously been linked with Vladar in trade rumours, just got Fredrik Andersen back from a long stint on IR and wouldn’t have room for another goalie now. Beyond that, Vladar wouldn’t be an upgrade on most of the incumbents around the league. If the Flames moved to assign him to the Wranglers, he’d probably go unclaimed.

Vladar hasn’t posted a single-season save percentage north of .900 since his first season with the Flames, and he’s now in Year 4. It’s been long enough. As much as it truly sucks to say, it’s time for the Flames to go in a different direction.