Flyers GM admits that franchise goaltender is available

With Daniel Briere officially minted as the general manager for the Philadelphia Flyers and Keith Jones hired as their President of Hockey Operations, they have a laundry list of items to check off this off-season and one of those could be deciding on the future of their young goaltender in Carter Hart.

In no way, shape, or form is Carter Hart being dangled by the Flyers, nor are they trying to trade him like Chuck Fletcher so desperately tried with James van Riemsdyk at the trade deadline. However with a rebuild on the horizon and the Flyers ushering themselves into a "new era of orange", there are several pieces they could move for the right price.

Briere had this to say about the future of Carter Hart:

"I would say, most likely, Carter is going to be our goalie of the future. Now I'm not in a position to turn down anything. If there's teams calling about him we have to listen, that's my job as a general manager. I have to listen, I have to do what's best for the team and the organization."


Kevin Hayes is all but gone, Tony DeAngelo could follow suit, Ivan Provorov might be their best trade chip, and Travis Konecny's future most likely lies in the hands of John Tortorella - who was absolutely enamoured by his efforts this past season. However, Carter Hart's name was mentioned in hushed tones ever since Fletcher was let go and it begs the question: what is the right price?

The Flyers were a graveyard for goaltending from the late 1990s all the way to the day Hart made his NHL debut in 2018. His 5-year career can be split down the middle with his first 2 seasons making him look like the real deal, followed by 2 seasons where he looked dead in the waters - albeit behind one of the shakiest d-corps in the league.

He went from sporting a 40-26-4 record with a 2.59 G.A.A and a .915 SV% and then a 9-5 record in the post-season with a .926 SV% and a 2.23 G.A.A with 2 shutouts to posting a 22-35-12 record with a .895 SV% and a 3.34 G.A.A. Although his numbers didn't look great on paper this year, Hart finished within the top-15 in a lot of analytical categories behind a defense that included Rasmus Ristolainen, Tony DeAngelo, Nick Seeler, and at times Justin Braun.

They have several goaltending prospects in Samuel Ersson, Felix Sandstrom, and Alexei Kolosov but none that can jump in the net right now as the starter, let alone in a 1A/1B tandem. The Flyers want draft picks and young prospects who are either NHL-ready or on the cusp. They don't want a full 4-5 year rebuild but believe it can be achieved in around 3 years or less.

Since goaltenders are a different breed and their development can be all over the place, NHL teams should be lining up at the door offering the Flyers a pretty penny. Young NHL goaltenders are hard to come by in free agency, through the draft, or in trades and if you still doubt his prowess, look at his first 2 seasons when he had a decent defense in front of him.

He's got one year left at 3.979 million cap hit before he reaches restricted free agency, he is turning 25-years-old in August, and if placed on the right team, he will be a steal. Ottawa, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Toronto, and New Jersey should all be placing phone calls but once again, the offer has to blow the Flyers new brass away.

It doesn't hurt to give Briere a call and see what the Flyers want in return but for now the Leafs should be rather content with Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll moving forward since they won't have to overpay either through trade or a new contract.