At What Point Are The Flyers Going To Place Goalie Coach Kim Dillabaugh On The Hot Seat? 

Photo Credit: Zack Hill

Once again, the persistent issue that has plagued this team since the late 90’s (after franchise goaltender Ron Hextall retired) has once again reared its ugly head. Though the team thought they finally resolved the ongoing problem in net back in 2016- when the last great Flyers’ goaltender (Hextall) drafted who was thought to be the next big thing in Carter Hart in the 2^nd round that year- Flyers’ fans once again seem to be left questioning everything they thought they could once believe in. 

The now 23-year-old Carter Hart, who was not only the first goalie taken from his draft class but was thought to be Philadelphia’s first, true, franchise-caliber goalie to grace Broad Street in over 20 years, still seems to battle with consistency. But while most fans and coaches alike (this writer included) would believe that Hart still has all the talent and potential in the world to reach his true capacity, his current confidence level and actual production tends to be a bit shaky. Example being the difference from his horrendous play in game one, to the exemplary play he showed in game two- this time against the Seattle Kraken. This type of inconsistency being why some websites like https://thehockeywriters.com/nhl-starting-goalies-ranked/ had him listed as the 26^th best starting goalie headed into the season.  

As we all know, last season the team’s defensive unit did not do Hart or Brian Elliott any favors. Hart struggled (to put it mildly) ranking 45^th in the league last season in wins totaling only 9 on the season. Carter also ranked outside of the top 50 in both goals-against-average (GAA) with a 3.78 GAA and a save percentage (SV%) of .905. But, over the course of the off season, the team’s general manager Chuck Fletcher has managed to overhaul the Flyers’ blue line by bringing in everything from a first-line pairing partner for Provorov in Ryan Ellis to a second- pairing punishing presence to line up with Sanheim in the form of Rasmus Ristolainen. Those are just the flashy additions though; Fletcher also added in aging veteran Keith Yandle who was bought out by the Florida Panthers recently but was signed by Fletcher for just the veteran minimum to round out the bottom pairing. Chuck was not done there though: He brought in some added depth as well in case injuries occurred. To date, this has proved to be most useful considering how both Rasmus Ristolainen and Samuel Morin are both currently out with injuries. This relief comes by way of defenseman Nick Seeler who Chuck signed over the summer for this very reason. Seeler has been put to work already, playing in his first few games with the big club. 

With that being said, both Carter Hart and the newly acquired Martin Jones (who is familiar with Coach Dillabaugh from their time with the Los Angeles Kings) should have no excuses now that they have possibly the best defensive core (not just from 1-6 but all the way through the seventh or eighth defenders, given their depth at the position) that Philadelphia has had in recent memory.  But surprisingly, both have struggled. Hart may have looked solid throughout the pre-season but left a lot to be desired in his first regular season game against the Vancouver Canucks. Even more worrisome has been Jones’ play in the preseason. Both goalies have failed to correctly perform some of the most basic goaltender fundamentals that they learned back in Pee Wee hockey. 

So, I ask you: Why has the Flyers’ goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh’s name not been brought up for discussion as part of the problem? I agree that it is still too early into this season to be handing out any pink slips, but what has Dillabaugh really done to justify his job in the past few seasons since being brought in by the team’s former general manager Ron Hextall? Hart, who was once thought to be a bit avant-garde (seeing that even before turning pro Carter was working with a sports psychologist to help with (among other things) his concentration), now has fired the good doctor and has been struggling to figure it out on his own making him, at times, become visibly frustrated. 

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Upon bringing him into the fold, Dillabaugh was thought to be one of the best in the business, as evidenced by his two Stanley cup rings he received while coaching with the Kings. But, as of yet, he’s failed to turn Hart (or any of the other multitude of goaltender prospects within the team’s system) into stars. Since 2015, the Flyers have made it a point to try and draft their goalie of the future selecting names like Felix Sandström, Ivan Fedotov, Carter Hart, Kirill Ustimenko, Samuel Ersson, and Alexei Kolosov, all of whom were lucky enough to don the orange and black on draft day. Sadly, none to include the recently departed in Roddy Ross, besides Hart have been able to start a regular season game in the NHL; In fact, only a few have any games played even at the AHL level. 

With this kind of production (or lack thereof), Dillabaugh is hardly in the same realm as the great goalie coach Mitch Korn who helped develop the likes of Grant Fuhr, Dominik Hasek, Pekka Rinne, Brayden Holtby, Robin Lehner, and currently is helping develop the Islanders’ young Russian netminder Ilya Sorkin. Dillabaugh can’t even be compared to the likes of Francois Allaire- the pioneer of the butterfly position who helped develop the great Patrick Roy, Roberto Luongo, Jonas Hiller, and Semyon Varlamov, to name a few.  

In conclusion, I believe Hart has the potential to win at least 350-400 games in the NHL but in order to do that I think the Flyers need to move on from Coach Kim. He has shown that he cannot develop talent like he once did for LA. In saying that, given Philadelphia’s ineptitude to develop goaltenders over the last 20 years, this should be all the more reason why abrupt action must be taken to find someone more proficient at their job so that the Flyers don’t squander away a talent like Carter’s.