Right now, the Flyers are facing a little bit of a crisis in net. Carter Hart is injured; however, there are reports that he has traveled with the team during their California road trip and could return soon. Felix Sandstrom has also recently become injured. That leaves Philly with Sam Ersson and Cal Petersen in net.
So far, Ersson has struggled somewhat in net. In his last game, however, it seems as if he is starting to turn the corner. Meanwhile, in his first and only start of the season, Petersen got blown out by his former team, the LA Kings. The Flyers do have some prospects at the AHL level who could be called if they need to.
Right now, there could be an opportunity to move one of the Flyers goalies: Petersen. The Carolina Hurricanes have just lost their starting goalie, Frederik Andersen. Andersen has just been diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder. It is not clear how long he will be out. Antti Raanta has been given the starting role right now while talented, but emotionally reckless prospect Pyotr Kochetkov, has been called up. Veteran goaltender Jaroslav Halak is training with the team to see if he still has any gas left in the tank.
Raanta is not a bad goaltender, but has been injury prone in the past. Kochetkov has flashes of brilliance in net. However, he’s a “Jekyll and Hyde” in net. He has lost his temper on quite a few occasions and has been suspended in the past.
Petersen is a veteran netminder. Granted, he has not played all that well in Los Angeles nor for Philly so far. Carolina has a very good, if not banged up, defensive corps. That should limit the amount of work that he will have to do. Carolina is also one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference, that should give him some confidence.
I’m not sure what Petersen could bring in return. The big issue here is cap space. Petersen’s salary is $5 million. The Canes have just $1.6 million in cap space. The Flyers could keep half of Petersen’s salary, but that would still leave Carolina $1 million short. That would mean that Kochetkov would have to go back down or some bench player would have to be included in the deal.
Daniel Briere should get on the phone to see if the Canes could make a deal. The Flyers would lose an inconsistent, albeit young goalie. Carolina would have a stopgap in place if Andersen is going to miss a lot of time.