Flyers Should Not Fear Trading Carter Hart

Philadelphia Flyers General Manager, Danny Briere, caused a stir in a radio interview last week by expressing a willingness to listen on trade offers for Flyers goaltender, Carter Hart.

Briere did not state that he is actively shopping Hart though. In fact, Briere said most likely that Hart would return as the Flyers’ number-one net minder. Nevertheless, Briere’s openness to considering a Carter Hart trade rekindled a longstanding debate among Flyers fans:

Is Carter Hart an untouchable centerpiece of the Flyers’ future?

For the following reasons, I disagree with Jason Myrtetus and the many others on Twitter who contend that the Flyers should rebuild around Carter Hart and that trading him would be a per se mistake.

1. I’m not sure how good Carter Hart truly is

I’ve seen Hart get burning hot, such as in October of last season. I’ve also seen Hart go ice cold, like in 2020-21 when he posted the worst statistical season of any NHL starting goalie in roughly three decades.

Carter Hart has yet to enjoy a single upper-echelon statistical season in his five-year career, albeit he’s had the misfortune of playing on mostly awful teams. Hart also has dealt with nagging injuries in each of these five seasons in the NHL.

Will injuries undermine his reliability going forward? Hart only turns 25 in August and may be poised to enter the elite echelon sooner rather than later. The point is that we just don’t know.

2. Carter Hart’s impending new contract and salary

Hart’s contract is up after this season and if the Flyers are committing to him as their goalie they will have to commit big on salary and term.

The NHL is CHOCKED FULL of goaltenders with $5,000,000+ cap hits that are now regretful albatrosses:

Matt Murray – $6,250,000
Jordan Binnington – $6,000,000
Jakob Markstrom – $6,000,000
Philipp Grubauer – $5,900,000
Elvis Merzlikins – $5,400,000
Jack Campbell – $5,000,000
Robin Lehner – $5,000,000
Cal Petersen – $5,000,000

Heck, the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks probably would prefer they not have John Gibson locked at $6,400,000 for three more seasons. Sergei Bobrovsky was a Pittsburgh win away from missing the playoffs and his $10,000,000 contract remaining viewed as an unmovable burden.

The only NHL goaltenders providing value for substantial cap hits are:

Andrei Vasilevskiy – $9,500,000
Connor Hellebuyck – $6,200,000
Igor Shesterkin – $5,700,000
Darcy Kuemper – $5,300,000
Thatcher Demko, Linus Ullmark, and Juuse Saros at $5,000,000 each.

One would imagine that Hart will seek a contract at least in the $6,000,000+ range.

This leads me back to my first point: Can we trust that Carter Hart is worth it? Is he more likely to be Hellebuyck or Markstrom?

I don’t know, which is itself a problem, but the long list of NHL goalies who aren’t living up to their cap hits sure gives me pause.

3. Does Carter Hart even want to be here?

The Flyers made it clear this off-season that they are engaging in a “deliberate” rebuilding process, with Briere asking fans for patience. Rebuilding likely means more losing over the next several years.

Hart did not seem particularly enamored with the idea of enduring more losing seasons during his exit-day interviews. Who can blame him? Does Carter Hart want to spend the next few years of his prime continuing to slog away thanklessly on bad-to-mediocre non-playoff teams? Does he enjoy playing for John Tortorella?

It is entirely possible that Hart may not be enthusiastic about re-signing with the Flyers and would welcome or even push for a trade.

4. The Flyers have depth at goaltender

For a franchise that has become almost as synonymous with poor goaltending as it has with the Broad Street Bullies, the Flyers find themselves with unusual organizational depth between the pipes.

The 23-year-old Samuel Ersson impressed John Tortorella from the outset last season. Tortorella even labled Ersson the Flyers’ best goaltender in training camp. Torts continued to rave about Ersson during Ersson’s often-excellent twelve-games with the Flyers in the regular season. Though Ersson’s statistics with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms were pedestrian, it is clear the organization is high on the Swedish net minder. It seems the organization views him as someone who can challenge Hart for playing time.

The under-the-radar name on the Flyers’ goaltending depth chart is 21-year-old Belarusian goaltender, Alexei Kolosov.

Selected 78th overall in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Kolosov debuted for Dinamo Minsk of the KHL (Russia’s top men’s professional hockey league) at just nineteen years old. He played just nine KHL games in 2020-21, followed by 22 games in 2021-22 and a whopping 42 games in the 2022-23 season (.912 save percentage).

Kolosov’s 73 games of KHL action by age 21 places him in rare territory. He’s following a path enticingly similar to former young KHL goaltenders Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin, Ilya Samsonov, and Andrei Vasilevskiy.

There were rumors several months ago that the Flyers hoped to bring Kolosov to North America for the 2023-24 season, ostensibly to play for the AHL Phantoms. The impact (if any) of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the Belarusian’s status is unknown.

One Flyers goaltending prospect who was severely impacted by the Russia-Ukraine conflict was the 6’8″ Ivan Fedotov.

The Flyers signed the then-25-year-old Fedotov last off-season, fresh off of the KHL goaltender-of-the-year award and an Olympic silver medal. The Flyers expected Fedotov would serve as Carter Hart’s backup.

Unfortunately, Russia blocked Fedotov’s transfer to the NHL based on an unfulfilled military obligation.

Earlier this month the general manager of Fedotov’s KHL team, CSKA Moscow, stated that he expects Fedotov to return to CSKA next season. Therefore, Fedotov’s future with the Philadelphia Flyers is very much in doubt.

5. Conclusion

Even without Fedotov, do Samuel Ersson and Alexei Kolosov provide the Flyers with a bright enough future in net to make Carter Hart expendable in the right trade?

It is a gamble.

Then again, signing Carter Hart to a long-term cap hit upwards of $6,000,000 is also a gamble.

The Flyers are a rebuilding squad. They will remain a rebuilding squad for the next several seasons as an already jaded Hart wastes part of his prime.

Would it hurt the rebuild to eschew a long-term $6,000,000+ cap hit, place some faith in younger prospects like Ersson and Kolosov while signing a relatively inexpensive short-term veteran goaltender to help, and cash-in on Carter Hart’s trade value with high draft picks and/or prospects that could accelerate the rebuild?

Would it hurt when the Flyers are truly ready to contend, to have the money that was earmarked for Hart, available to spend however they see best fit at that time?

I assert no.

Trading Hart may be risky, but tying him up long-term to a significant cap hit carries risks as well. There are no guarantees here, and the Flyers have ways to mitigate the loss of Hart. As such, if the Flyers receive a tantalizing offer for Carter Hart that will boost their rebuilding efforts, they should not be afraid to execute on it.

JOE KANIA IS A CONTRIBUTOR FOR HW HOCKEY
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