Philadelphia Flyers Prospect Perspectives: #2 Carter Hart

In the words of Counting Crows, “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got till it’s gone?”. Well doesn’t it seem like as Philadelphia Flyers fans, these lyrics apply to us the most. We have seen our fair share of players who the fans have called for their heads, we gave up on to soon or just overall let them walk.

Hopefully in the case of our young goaltending phenom Carter Hart, we don’t have to worry about that. For now, lets start picking up the pieces of this team’s Hart

Carter Hart is a 22 year old out of Alberta, Canada. He was drafted 48th overall in the second round from the Everett Silvertips. Hart stands a solid 6’2″ and weighing in at 181 lbs. He has played 101 games in his early career, notching a record of 49-37-9.

You maybe wondering why I am telling you things you already knew. The answer is pretty simple. It is because Carter Hart is only going into his third full season in the NHL in the 2021-2022 season. There was a lot of hype around Hart before he was called up. During his first stint and as the seventh goalie used in a single season, he answered the call.

Hart played 31 games and started 30 of those games in the 18-19 season. He notched a 16-13-1 record. Hart had a .917 SV% and a GAA of 2.83. He posted 14 quality starts, but had a quality start percentage of .467 which is actually really bad. Although the Flyers had called him up, they were still at the end of a “rebuild” and a year where Ron Hextall and Dave Hakstol were both fired so his record was not really reflecting his play that season.

Hart was really good last season in his first true season in the NHL, playing 43 games and starting in 40 of those. He notched a record of 24-13-3 with a SV% of .914 and allowing 2.42 GAA. He posted his first shutout in front of the home crowd during the home opener vs the New Jersey Devils. He had 25 quality starts with a .625 QS% which is above average.

Now coming into this previous 2021 season after carrying the team in the bubble, a lot of people expected Carter Hart to not only take another step forward, but really lead this team to and through the playoffs once more. Unfortunately, we know that this was not the case.

Hart started out the season pretty strong, winning games early on. However, as the season went on, a lot of flaws began showing and not all to the fault of Carter Hart. But there were some goals that were very stoppable for him but he just was incapable of doing it.

I would like to point out the loss of Matt Niskanen was a big hit to the team considering they never filled his spot. Erik Gustafsson was nowhere near Nisky’s level of play. The regression of Sanheim and Myers was also very evident as well and the sixth defenseman was up in the air as well while Gus was here.

The Flyers were way below average on their PK at 73.05% as the league average was 80.21%. Their offense was very lackluster and most nights could not get more than two goals up on the board. They have 167 goals and the league average was 162, while their goals against was were at 197 with a league average of 162.

Looking at the more advanced stats, the Flyers controlled the puck more often than their oppenent did and they also had more of the high danger chances but like I always say, stats don’t tell the whole story.

Carter Hart ended up finishing the season with 27 GP, 25 GS and notched a record of 9-11-5. He had a SV% of .877 and a GAA of 3.67. Hart had eight really bad starts but nine quality starts as well. He faced 37 High danger scoring chances and gave up eight goals. The year before Hart faced 169 HDSC and gave up 34 goals.

Diving deeper into his stats, Hart was much better at even strength. He faced 578 shots while only giving up 64 goals posting a .889 SV%. While on the PK, Hart faced 103 shots and gave up 23 goals posting a .777 SV%.

Now why would I rank Carter Hart number one of my best prospects that played for the Flyers this year? Well, we don’t know what Carter Hart we are ultimately going to see this upcoming season. We have seen the good, bad and ugly parts of Hart’s game and as of right now, his play is a giant question mark.

Hart is only 22 years old and has a ton of upside. Toward the end of the season, before he was shut down due to injury, Hart began to show confidence and really showed flashes of himself from the year prior. If the team can get help some defensive help and can score a couple more goals a night, they really shouldn’t have any issues.

With Hart being number two on my prospect perspective list, the top five prospects just became a little more difficult. Number three is a definite answer but four through six is going to be very difficult to list.