It would seem by now the vast majority of fans in Philadelphia would concede that the Flyers have finally found their future in-between the pipes. After what seemed like such a long a grueling journey of trial and error of different goaltenders suiting up for the orange and black over the years since their last elite goaltender Ron Hextall retired with names like Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth, Petr Mrazek, Steve Mason, Ray Emery, Ilya Bryzgalov, Michael Leighton, Sergei Bobrovsky, Brian Boucher, Martin Biron, Antero Nittymaki, Robert Esche, Jeff, Hackett, Sean Burke, Neil Little, Roman Cechmanek, John Vanbiesbrouck, and Garth Snow all trying to but never quite being able to fill his skates. Who would have thought it would then come full circle with Hextall being named General Manager of the Flyers organization and himself ending this odyssey by bring in a new deity of the blue paint for us fans to belief in. This happened when Ron selected Hart with the teams’ 2nd round pick back in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft.
In such a short amount of time this now 22-year-old went from a great prospect who ruled the Western Hockey League (WHL) winning three Del Wilson Trophies for being the Goaltender of the year. To winning gold at the IIHF World Jr. Championships for team Canada in 2018, then following that up by achieving something no other goalie in history has done before when he won his second Canadian Hockey League (CHL) award for being Goaltender of the year. To now carrying the Flyers in the playoffs this past season to the cusp of an Eastern Conference Finals appearance.
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My what an amazing ride it has been thus far for the amazing Carter Hart who will no doubt continue to develop his game. The only thing is success must be rewarded, and with Carter Hart set to become a restricted free agent after this upcoming season the Flyers better be ready to ante up!
To this point Philadelphia has been reaping the benefits of Hart’s labor. Seeing that Carter is still playing under his entry level deal that pays him an average of just $730,833 a year. This seems quite the bargain for a goaltender who just this past season won 24 games and averaged a 2.42 goals against average (GAA) and a .914 save percentage (SV%). Not to mention his impressive playoff appearance where he won 9 games and posted a 2.23 GAA paired with a .926 SV%.
So how much can we expect the Flyers to have to compensate this rare talent for his efforts? A player who ranked 9th in wins this past year in the NHL; and 8th in GAA. To better do so let us compare goaltenders with similar stats and keep in mind the achievements made in their careers. The Flyers won’t have to pay the price that the upper echelon goalies make. Like the Montreal Canadiens did for Carter’s boyhood idol Carey Price at $10.5 million a season, or like the Florida Panthers pay former Flyer Sergei Bobrovsky $10 million a season. For those guys and the ones just under them have all either won Stanley Cups and/or have won multiple Vezina Trophies (award given to the NHL best goaltender) to prove their worth. The last one currently still on that level would be Connor Hellebuyck of Winnipeg who was awarded the Vezina Trophy for the 2020 season and just received a contract of $6.1 million a year. So that leaves us with a fairer comparison of Calgary’s new goaltender Jacob Markstrom who just received a 6-year deal worth $36 Million dollars. That’s a $6 Million a year pay day. Now Markstrom only won 23 games last year which is one less than Hart. This in my mind would be the top end of what the Flyers might have to shell out for Hart.
Another contract that might prove to more manageable and that the Flyers should look to mimic would be that of Frederik Anderson’s of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Frederik is signed to a 5-year $25 Million dollar deal that pays him just $5 Million dollars a year. This contract also sees to it that Anderson receives a portion of his $7 Million dollar signing bonus for each of the years of his contract. This signing bonus ensures that Anderson is paid the same if not more than the likes of Markstrom or others who possess similar talents but does so with less of a cap hit. Also, inked into the fine print of Frederik’s contract is the possibility of incentives. Which guarantees that if Anderson does in fact reach certain goals set out previously by the Leafs, that he would be so inclined to receive quite a large gratuity for his efforts.
Let’s face it there are a lot of way that the Flyers could go about re-signing their future Vezina Trophy winner (Carter Hart), these are just two of many contracts that Philadelphia will surely be looking at when they begin to try to gain a perspective on what they should offer Hart. One thing is for certain though with whatever method the team so chooses it should put emphasizes on securing Hart for the long haul! For if the Flyers were to try to resign Carter to a bridge deal, they may find themselves (in a few years) having to pay Hart, Andrei Vasilevski (from the Tampa Bay Lightning) type money ($9.5 Million a year). Seeing that Hart may be not to far off from writing his own Vezina Trophy winning speech!
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