Flyers’ Carter Hart Out 2-3 Weeks With Abdominal Strain

Add another Philadelphia Flyers player to the injured list.

Well, this sucks. After leaving Tuesday’s practice early with an undisclosed injury, the Philadelphia Flyers confirmed today that goaltender Carter Hart is set to miss 2-3 weeks of action due to an abdominal strain. In corresponding moves, Joel Farabee has been loaned back to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Chris Stewart‘s been placed on waivers, and Alex Lyon has been called up to serve as Brian Elliott‘s emergency backup in tonight’s meeting with the St. Louis Blues.

There’s a lot to take in here. First off, Hart’s void will be a tough one to fill for the Flyers. Though he’s struggled a bit on the road, the 21-year-old goaltender has been one of the NHL’s best netminders on home-ice, posting a 1.69 Goals Against Average with a .940 save percentage in 17 games at the Wells Fargo Center so far this season. Overall, Hart’s slashed a 2.61 GAA and a .905 SV% during the 2019-20 campaign and while it’s a slight drop in production from his first year in the NHL, it is certainly nothing to scoff at. Philadelphia will now look to Elliott to take over the starting reins for the time being, and hopefully, Moose will be able to snap out of his recent cold streak, as he’s allowed at least four goals in two of his last three games.

As far as the other moves are concerned, General Manager Chuck Fletcher’s hands were kind of tied here. The team didn’t have enough cap space to bring up Lyon, and a guy who’s currently waiver-exempt (I.E., Farabee) had to head to the Valley in order to make everything work. I wouldn’t expect the 19-year-old winger to stay in the AHL for long, though, and should be back when Hart is back at full strength barring any other unforeseen circumstance.

I’ll just reiterate, the news of Hart’s injury absolutely sucks, but at least it happened near the All-Star break, meaning he should only miss around 3-4 games if the timetable is correct.