The Flyers and goaltender Carter Hart continue to discuss options for a contract extension for the 22-year-old restricted free agent. Meanwhile, the goaltending carousel around the NHL has now affected the Flyers.
Veteran Brian Elliott signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning last week to back up reigning Conn Smythe winner Andrei Vasilevskiy. The limited role behind arguably the best goaltender in the NHL will benefit Elliott late in his career.
The Carolina Hurricanes have remade their organizational depth chart in net. They recently lost Alex Nedeljkovic and Petr Mrazek and signed 31-year-old Frederik Andersen as the presumed starter.
Former Flyers netminder Alex Lyon, considered primarily an American Hockey League (AHL) goaltender, was signed by Carolina. He figures to be used primarily as a depth option, but opportunity might arise considering the unpredictable nature of the goaltending plans in Raleigh.
The offseason shakeup has left the Flyers, the franchise notorious for goalie carousels, with a need to reevaluate their organizational depth between the pipes.
Carter Hart: Flyers Goaltending Savior?
Hart finished with the worst save percentage (.877) and goals against average (3.67) of any NHL goaltender who played at least 25 games in 2020-21. His issues and the team’s issues snowballed throughout the course of the tumultuous season.
Elliotte Friedman reported on the 31 Thoughts podcast that talks about a long-term extension between the organization and their prized young netminder broke down during the 2020-21 season. However, Hart is clearly still thought to be the long-term starter in net for Philadelphia.
Charlie O’Connor of the Athletic projected a potential contract extension “somewhere in the $3 million to $4 million range for a cap hit feels like a reasonable estimate on a two- or three- year contract for Hart.”
The Flyers will put their trust in Hart to rebound from the nightmare of last season, which the organization and Hart himself attributed (at least somewhat) to the circumstances surrounding the pandemic.
Martin Jones: Reclamation Free Agent
The Flyers signed 31-year-old Martin Jones to replace Elliott as Hart’s primary backup. The move was perceived as the first true headscratcher in an otherwise highly regarded offseason for general manager Chuck Fletcher. Jones’ numbers over the past three seasons rank towards the bottom of NHL goaltenders.
The decision to enter the season with Jones as the second option to a 22-year-old who struggled as much as Hart did last season is risky. The Flyers are betting heavily on the reclamation of Jones, who played during some of the best periods of his career with the Los Angeles Kings under current Flyers goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh.
Flyers Goaltending Prospects
Felix Sandstrom, a third-round pick in 2015, will enter the 2021-22 season as the assumed starter for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He has developed over the course of the past few seasons mixing stints in the AHL and in Sweden.
As of right now, the 24-year-old is the likeliest goaltender to be promoted in the event of an injury to Hart or Jones. There is still a possibility of the Flyers signing an additional veteran if they are not confident in Sandstrom at the NHL level.
The Flyers spent a third-round pick in this year’s draft on Alexei Kolosov, a 19-year-old who stood out in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) last year. The expected slow development of goaltenders will likely keep him from coming to North America in the foreseeable future, but he was taken as a second year eligible player a little further into his development than the 18-year-old goaltenders who were selected.
Kirill Ustimenko suffered a torn labrum in December 2020 after showing flashes of excellence in the minor leagues during the 2019-20 season. The 22-year-old Belarusian netminder enters the season as a candidate to earn time in the crease for the Phantoms. The uncertainty of his injury, the same one that Boston Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask is currently dealing with, will have to play out before the Flyers make a full evaluation of his future.
Samuel Ersson, a fifth-round pick in 2018, has also developed at the professional level in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) in considerable playing time over the past two seasons. The likelihood of a professional future in North America for Ivan Fedotov, a 24-year-old Finnish goalie of the KHL, has become slim.