Philadelphia Flyers: Carter Hart ranked 10th among playoff goaltenders

Having never appeared in the post season, Flyers Carter Hart found himself ranked among all goaltenders entering the postseason.

As mentioned above, this is the first time that Carter Hart will see postseason action. The young Flyers goaltender burst onto the scene his rookie year. He cooled off slightly this season, but still put up solid numbers.

And the league has taken notice. As the NHL continues their “Super 16” series, Hart found himself on the list when it came to goaltenders.

The list includes 16 of the top goaltenders heading into the playoffs. Similar to the list Sean Couturier found himself on, the players were ranked by points. The top goaltender was given 16 points, 15 for the second, 14th for third, etc.

Hart received a total of 73 points by the 13 writers. Out of that group, four writers left them off their ballots completely. Hart was ranked fairly consistently by most. One writer, Tracey Myers, did have him as the fifth best goaltender.

Otherwise, he fell mostly around the 9-12 mark. That allowed him to capture the 10th spot on the list. He was ahead of goaltenders such as Sergei Bobrovsky, Robin Lehner, and Matt Murray. The latter actually didn’t make the list at all.

Unsurprisingly, players such as Tuukka Rask, Andrei Vasilevskiy, and Connor Hellebuyck found themselves higher on the list.

With no postseason experience to go on, we have to look at Hart’s regular season to give us an idea of what to expect. He was 24-13-3 in 43 games this season. He was tied for ninth in wins and sixth in GAA.

Hart allowed two or fewer goals in 25 of his 43 games. That includes an impressive final stretch where nine of his last 11 games saw two goals or fewer.

Hart’s dominance actually came on home ice. This season. 20 of his wins were at the Wells Fargo Center. He was starting to figure things out on the road as the season came to an early end.

With everyone on a level playing field when it comes to neutral sites, that may not be a factor for Hart. But it is something to monitor. Especially with this being his first taste of playoff hockey.

But he finds himself among good company going in. And he can become the youngest Flyers goaltender to win a playoff game. Pete Peeters holds the current record which dates back to 1980.

Peters was 22 years, 235 days old. Hart won’t turn 22 until August 13th. At 21 years old when the playoffs are to begin, that would be quite the feat for Hart.