Carter Hart is the future of the Philadelphia Flyers organization. That’s it, that’s the article.
It’s safe to say that Carter Hart either met or surpassed expectations from those around the league following the Philadelphia Flyers 2018-19 campaign. After struggling a bit with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and subsequently getting called up in the month of December when his play improved, Hart looked right at home in the NHL.
Hart finished the season with a 16-13-1 record, a 2.83 Goals-Against Average, and a .917 save percentage. He single-handedly dragged the Flyers out of the league’s basement and gave them a fair shot at making the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Sadly, we all know how that story went, so let’s just skip over that part.
Digging a little deeper into his numbers and you’ll see just how good Hart was in an Orange and Black uniform. He allowed the 18th least amount of High Danger Goals-Against, the 31st best High Danger save percentage, and the 13th lowest total of expected Goals-Against among all NHL goaltenders who have played at least 1000 minutes of Time on Ice at even-strength according to NaturalStatTrick.com. He also was excellent while short-handed, as he ranked Top-Five in several categories. It’s worth noting that Hart did all of this as a 20-year-old rookie. A twenty-year-old ROOKIE. All of the former Everett Silvertip’s talent was on full display and he hardly disappointed.
Like every rookie, Hart does still have some aspects of his game to work on. He faced his fair share of rebound shot attempts, tying 22nd in the league in Rebound Attempts Against at even-strength with 115 in 31 games played. Some of this is due to the statistic taking blocked shots and misses into account, but there were times during the year where Hart gave up some big rebounds. It didn’t always come back to bite him, yet it’s something he’ll need to clean up in order to become an even more effective net-minder.
Do I really have to state the obvious here? Of course, Hart should remain with the Flyers! He finally gives the team a sure-fire starting goaltender moving forward and, barring anything catastrophic, should stay that way for a long time coming.
I’m very excited to see how Hart’s career plays out because if this is just the beginning, we’re for a treat in the city of Philadelphia.