In no way, shape, or form am I insinuating that there is a goalie controversy in Philadelphia. Nor am I saying that Carter Hart has an immense amount of pressure surrounding his crease for this upcoming season either.
It’s no surprise that the young net-minder has struggled over the course of the last two seasons after having a good rookie campaign and an even better sophomore season. Just like the rest of the team, Hart has yet to regain that form and it is starting to bring about a lot of disdain from pockets of the fanbase and some media members on whether or not he is able to return to form or if the 2019-20 season was the outlier campaign of his young career.
With all the buzz that was circulating around Ivan Fedotov this season after his impressive Olympics showing and then leading his team to the KHL championship down 3-1 in the series, one has to wonder if the recent signing of Fedotov can ignite some much needed fire and competition as they look to reawaken the Carter Hart from 2019-20.
The last two seasons have not been pretty by any stretch of the imagination and even though he was walking around with a save percentage above 91% for most of this season, his final 6-7 games threw everything out the window. In saying that, we cannot forget about the abysmal defense that was setting up camp outside of Hart’s crease. The constant need to collapse while allowing the top players from their opponent to carry the puck closer and closer into the slot, the inane amount of screened goals and goals that have deflected off a stick or a skate, and worst of all is the sheer amount of breakaways, odd-man rushes, and turnovers in dangerous areas on the ice.
In the case of Carter Hart, the defense has been the biggest hindrance in his last two seasons, but at the same time there are several kinks to his game that he needs to address as soon as possible. His biggest weakness by far are his angles, and opposing teams have slowly figured that out and will shoot at will from the corners. Hart leaves a lot of daylight between his pad and the post and when he goes down on one knee, he leaves a lot of room in the top corner between his mask and his shoulder. Time after time we have seen a bad angle goal tie the game or take the lead even though Hart probably made a miraculous save on the play before. Hart also has a tendency to drop down to his pad very early, allowing the shooter time to make a move on the goaltender and get him out of position or roof the puck top shelf. Even in saying all that, those are minor issues that can be fixed and worked on in contrast to the larger problem at hand; the team in front of him.
2020-21 was just not a good year for anyone, including Carter Hart. On the season he finished with a 9-11-5 record while posting pedestrian peripherals with a 3.67 GAA and an .877 save percentage. He was in fact, statistically speaking, one of the worst goalies in the NHL, which was a far cry from his performance in 2019-20 when he finished with a 24-13-3 record and then added 10 wins in the playoffs.
In his first 12 games he was 6-3-3 with a 3.20 GAA and .899 save percentage, a good record but not the best peripherals, however they were slightly ignored because the team was winning and scoring. His next 8 games represented the critical juncture of the shortened season where the Flyers went from playoff hopefuls to wondering what went wrong. He posted a 2-4-0 record with a 3.75 GAA and an .821 save percentage, and then finished his final 7 games going 1-4-2 with a 3.05 GAA and an .881 save percentage. His season was cut short due to an injury, and he looked to be righting the ship near the end when you compare the save percentages but by then it was way too little way too late.
Goal support became a problem on top of everything else and when your defense and goaltending are crumbling, the last thing you need is for your offense to go ice-cold as well. In Hart’s 11 regulation losses in 2020-21, the Flyers scored 20 goals, were shutout once, and scored one goal four times. In his five overtime losses, the Flyers gave him 17 goals, which gives you a round number of 37 goals in his 16 losses for an average of around 2.31 goals per game.
The number that stood out the most from that season were his numbers during Flyers wins. Hart carried a .940 save percentage and a 1.73 GAA in his 24 wins in 2019-20, and he carried a .953 save percentage and a 1.61 GAA in 13 wins in 2021-22, but only had a .919 save percentage and a 2.42 GAA in 9 wins in 2020-21. It was not his year and that much showed, but that could arguably have been one of the worst defenses the Flyers have fielded in recent memory; in other words, just a bad chain reaction.
This season was a little different because Hart actually played pretty well when you consider everything around him and the way he composed himself. The Flyers looked great until the Western Canadian road trip in October and even though they dispatched the Edmonton Oilers, they needed a 30+ save performance from Martin Jones to steal a game in Vancouver, and then they played one of their worst games of the season in Calgary where they had only nine shots after 40 minutes. After that, the Flyers alternated between wins and losses for two weeks before they hit their first 10-game losing streak.
In those four wins, Hart played in three and had to stand on his head for at least two of them. In their 3-0 win against the Coyotes, the Flyers didn’t score their first goal until midway through the third period, while Hart secured the shutout. In their 2-1 win against Carolina, they were outshot 40-28, but more importantly 28-13 after 40 minutes. The last win before their 10-game losing streak was against the Calgary Flames, where the Flyers outshot the Flames 43-34 but it was mostly remembered for Kevin Hayes’ first goal of the season.
In Hart’s first 20 games this year, he went 7-9-4 with a 2.70 GAA but an impressive .917 save percentage. As the team was spiralling out of control, so were his numbers, because over his next 20 games he kept a similar record in 6-10-4 but a 3.10 GAA and a .906 save percentage. To be carrying a save percentage above 91% with only 13 wins and 27 losses is outstanding. Things took a turn for the worst after the All-Star break as he finished his season going 4-10-2 with a 3.82 GAA and an .887 save percentage, which includes him going winless in his final five games where he held a 4.60 GAA and a pedestrian .850 save percentage.
Against the Eastern Conference he held a 4-18-6 record with a 3.46 GAA and .890 save percentage,, which includes a 0-10-3 record against the Atlantic Division with very similar peripherals. Against the Western Conference he was 9-6-1 with a .928 save percentage and 2.63 GAA, which included the season series sweep of the Vegas Golden Knights where he made 88 saves on 92 shots in two games.
Overall, it was a weird season for the young net-minder who was looking for a bounce back from his putrid 2020-21 campaign. All in all, I think it’s safe to say that he did bounce back, maybe not the way everyone had hoped for, but when you consider the season was essentially wiped out in January, he did the best he could to keep the team afloat.
Once again, goal support was a problem as the Flyers scored 42 goals in his 24 regulation losses. Of those 24 games, five of them were shutouts with three consecutively coming at the start of the season, and the Flyers were held to one goal six times. Add in his seven overtime and shootout losses, where they scored 21 times, the Flyers gave their net-minder 63 goals in 31 games, which is good for just 2.03 goals per game. Add in the 46 goals they scored during his 13 victories and that’s still only 3.5 goals per game. To put that into perspective, eight NHL teams scored at that clip or higher for the entire season, let alone their victories.
With Martin Jones most likely not getting an extension to return next season, the Flyers will be turning their attention towards Ivan Fedotov. The hulking Russian net-minder posted a 14-10-2 record with a .919 save percentage and a 2.00 GAA in the KHL with CSKA Moscow. He then led his club to the championship after posting a gaudy 16-6 record alongside a .937 save percentage and 1.85 GAA. On top of all that, Fedotov had a fantastic Olympic showing, which is what really brought about attention to his name, as he helped Russia claim the silver medal after valiantly falling to Finland. He just recently signed an entry-level deal for one year and is presumably going to be battling Felix Sandstrom for the backup position.
Sandstrom made his NHL debut this season and even though he went winless in his five starts, he played very well and proved to the Flyers brass that they don’t need to go scouring the free agent waters for a veteran backup goalie. His .910 save percentage was eye-popping when you consider the fact that he faced 177 shots, which was the most any goaltender has faced in the last 14 years for the Orange and Black. The Flyers are going to have to make a decision between the two net-minders, but that will obviously come well after free agency and into training camp when they have a better understanding of what the team looks like, who is coaching, and if Fedotov’s game can translates to North America.
There’s always a little bit of a learning curve for players coming from overseas because of the smaller rinks, the fast paced game, and the little rules pertaining to the NHL. Even so, Sandstrom starting as the backup and Fedotov getting some games in the AHL isn’t the worst thing either. Cheap, young, affordable, and agile goaltenders are something the Flyers haven’t had a lot of in recent years, especially at the backup position.
Carter Hart is still the number one goalie in Philadelphia, he will be for foreseeable future, and faith should not be lost in the soon-to-be 24 year-old. Things haven’t looked good over the last two seasons, but that can be said about every single department related to the Philadelphia Flyers. They can’t score, they can’t defend, and then that leaves the goaltending in a serious bind. All the odd-man rushes, all the breakaways, all the shorthanded goals allowed, it has to put a severe strain on anyone wearing the pads in Philadelphia over the last tqo years. Hart still managed pretty good peripherals for a very bad team and now having Fedotov’s successful climb up the ranks be the talk of the town in relation to Flyers goaltending, that could be the fire needed to ignite Hart’s game to go above and beyond.
However, in saying all that, the Flyers need to figure out their defense first. Ryan Ellis, Ivan Provorov, Travis Sanheim, Cam York, Rasmus Ristolainen all healthy and raring to go is a good thing, but one injury again could derail the Flyers season. Mum’s the word on Ellis’ timetable, at one point the rumour mill was churning Provorov and Sanheim’s names, and Ristolainen was recently extended to a 5-year contract. The Flyers defense is once again hinging on Ellis’ health unless Chuck Fletcher acquires another bonafide stud to really shore up their biggest weakness.
Hart would love nothing more than to finally have a capable, sturdy, and trustworthy defense in front of him and if Fletcher can pull that off, I’m sure that Hart will return to his 2019-20 form and then some.
