Could Brian Elliott be the Philadelphia Flyers’ Backup Next Year?

The Philadelphia Flyers have a hole to fill next season behind Carter Hart. It looks like Cam Talbot has the inside track, but it might be too early to count out Brian Elliott.

One of the Philadelphia Flyers’ biggest holes to fill between now and next season is the open backup / 1B position behind goalie Carter Hart. The 20-year-old has proven this year he belongs in the NHL and in the starting crease, passing many on the Flyers’ goalie depthchart.

But because he’ll still only be in his second professional season and only just old enough to buy a beer, having a steady presence as a netminding partner is crucial. As we’ve seen from Hart and plenty of elite goalies, no one can be perfect in net all the time and tough stretches at the beginning of a career is a norm.

The Flyers seemed to be getting a head start on the search when they acquired Cam Talbot from the Edmonton Oilers in the middle of February, but what if they had their backup answer in the organization already in Brian Elliott?

Talbot will make his Flyers debut tonight against the Devils and both him and Elliott are free agents this summer. However, given how much Elliott has played since returning from injury and the fact that general manager Chuck Fletcher didn’t move the veteran at the trade deadline, despite interest and a slew of goalies in Philly, you have to wonder if Elliott could be a Flyer past this season.

This season, his second in the orange and black, Elliott got the year off to a rough start as the team struggled and he suffered an injury, just like every other Flyers goalie. Lost during the former Blue’s absence and bad start from the team was the fact that he’s actually been a decent goaltender during his time in Philly.

Elliott carried a 23-11-7 record last season and has a .917 save percentage this season. He’s looked solid since returning from injury, but still has a bad tendency of letting in easy goals.

A lot of his struggles have answers too. We already talked about the team’s issues to start 2018-19 and in last year’s playoff series against the Penguins, he was rushed back too early from injury.

Elliott’s best years also came while sharing the net. With the Blues in 2011-12, he posted a league-best .940 SV% playing 38 games. Between that year and 2015-16, his last as a Blue, the Ontario native recorded a combined .925 SV% and a 2.01 goals-against-average across four seasons.

The obvious issue there is that Elliott is no longer the 26-year-old that started that stretch or even the 30-year-old that finished it. At 33 (he’ll start next season at 34), he’s firmly left his prime and will likely start aging even more exponentially.

And it’s easy to notice a pattern from Elliott as a Flyer: injuries. He missed crucial games during the stretch run last season and was out from Nov. 15 to Feb. 18 this season. Some of that can be blamed on former coach Dave Hakstol playing him heavily last season, but there’s got to be some injury concern from the Flyers.

There’s also hope that since Elliott never had the workload of a starting goalie, maybe the injuries and aging will abate, but Talbot is slightly younger at 31 and also had a slow start to his NHL career.

Logically, it seems like it’s Talbot’s job to lose next year. But don’t completely count out Elliott just yet.