The Flyers Now Find Themselves In Pursuit Of Some Help In-Between The Pipes

With all the Flyers’ faltering this season, the team has recently labeled goaltender Carter Hart as a healthy scratch. Whether you agree with this decision or not, that came from the team’s head coach Alain Vigneault after Hart (who has struggled this season to say the least) has only been able to achieve 8 wins in 22 games played this year. Overall, you have to admit that Hart’s play needs to get better, and he might just need this time to reset his game because his statistics this season are atrocious- posting a 4.04 goals against average (G.A.A.) and a .869 save percentage (SV%) on the season.  This is a far cry indeed from the numbers Hart was able to produce last year where he led his team to the brink of an Eastern Conference Finals appearance. What exactly is wrong with Carter? Well, no one really knows but if this writer had to guess it would be: Nothing, except the lack of help from his dilapidated defensive core which started him on this downward spiral that he now finds himself in- A flaw that the team for sure needs to address sooner rather than later. Unfortunately for Brian Elliott, he is well-accustomed to dealing with disjointed defenses throughout the course of his career in the NHL, to the point that he seems to be the only one equipped to keep the team in the game at all.

In such a short time, Hart has gone from a player that was once considered to be so mentally prepared and innovative, even going as far as employing a sports psychologist to help him work on his game and create on ice methods to help his concentration (like watching the descent of each droplet of water that he squirts up into the air during a TV time out) to now being so frustrated with his game that he was quoted as saying this:     

“I just need to find more ways to stop pucks. Just go out and play… Not overthink things and just trust my game. It’s just shitty right now.” -Carter Hart

These are words that no coach, general manager, or even fan for that matter wants to hear coming from their prized young goaltender.  With Hart desperate to climb out of the mental haze that has been plaguing him for so long this season, he has made the decision to part ways with his sports psychologist- John Stevenson- whom he has employed since his time in Everett. 

Knowing all this, Vigneault may have felt that he had no other choice than to sit Hart. When speaking to the media about his recent, challenging decision, he had this to say: 

“He’s going to skate today in practice, stay on after, practice with the team tomorrow, stay on after. Wednesday he’ll do the same thing … he needs to work on his game. He needs to work harder; He needs to work better. I’ve had good conversations with him and Kim Dillabaugh, (goalie coach) about my expectations about his practice habits and him stopping the puck.” -Alain Vigneault 

Whether this decision will prove to help reset Hart’s play, or whether it will turn out to further damage his mental well-being, remains to be seen, but most would agree something had to be done. Hart IS the goaltender that the Flyers have been waiting for and needing for so long and maybe a short stint with the team’s American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate the Lehigh Valley Phantoms would not be such a bad idea. A goaltender is nothing without his confidence and, as it stands now, Hart’s is almost nonexistent. Therefore, getting the chance to play with a friend (defenseman Wyatt Wylie who Carter trusts and was able to have so much success with during their time in juniors together while playing for the Silvertips) may just be enough to cure what ails him and allows him to return to his prior form in-between the pipes. 

In the meantime, though, the Flyers have recently been rumored to be looking around the NHL for some help in-net. While this writer thinks that the team’s new speculated search is misguided (to put it nicely) seeing that the real problem is on defense and therefore the team should not go back to their old way of thinking that had tormented Philadelphia fans for so many years. One in which the team chose to blame the team’s goaltenders for their lack of success every season since Hextall last left the crease, resulting in a carousel of different players in-net over the years rather than choosing to address the real issue at hand (the defense). Something not in Carter’s favor is that neither AV nor general manager Chuck Fletcher were involved in bring him to Philly, leaving them less invested in his future than Hextall would have been. But keeping all that in mind, we will humor Fletcher and just go with it. 

If this nasty rumor of looking for goaltending help is true, who then should the team be looking to acquire? Well, the criteria should definitely include someone who has an expiring contract or one nearing expiration, and also someone whose team might be willing to retain some of that player’s salary so that the Flyers could still look to add a top-pairing, right-hand-shot defenseman that they so desperately need. While using those guidelines as a reference, here is a list of potential goaltenders that may help the Flyers regain their rightful place in the standings until Hart is able to restore his confidence. 

First up: 32-year-old Jonathan Bernier from the Detroit Red Wings (who the Flyers have already been linked to this week). This former 1^st rd. draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings- who helped them raise a Stanley Cup banner back in 2012- has gone on to be a very serviceable goaltender for many teams over the years. Now playing on his 5th team since being drafted, Bernier has found his niche of sorts: Helping struggling teams that either find themselves in-between starting goaltenders or when their Number One goes down with an injury. He has found himself in this situation again in Detroit, who presently find themselves at the very bottom of the Central Division and thus out of playoff contention. Bernier is playing well for the Red Wings even though they are in the middle of a painstaking rebuild, posting 8 wins in 17 games played (GP) this year while averaging a 2.78 G.A.A. and a .918 SV% in the process. The Red Wings just might be willing to part with Jonathan and his reasonably expiring $3,000,000 contract on the grounds that there is no real guarantee that he would return next season so they might as well get something for him while they can. If the Flyers do decide to pull the trigger on a deal that would land them Bernier, they should also look to try and make Detroit retain a portion of his salary so that the Flyers will then still have the cap space needed to obtain other players (i.e. DEFENSEMEN) needed to help this team moving forward. Rest assured, such a deal would be with the mindset that Bernier’s time here in Philly is to be short-lived with the hope that Hart will once again find his will to win.  This deal will have to wait though, seeing that Bernier is currently out of the lineup (but is now back on the ice in practice) due to an injury he obtained during a game a few weeks ago.  

If Chuck Fletcher has shown us anything over his short term as the Flyers’ GM, it is that he is a creature of habit. What I mean by this is that if a player is available that has worked out well for him in the past (for instance when he was the GM of the Minnesota Wild) he will not hesitate to recycle them back into his new team’s organization if he thinks that they can help. Examples of this are Chris Stewart, Nate Prosser, and Kurtis Gabriel- all of whom Chuck has had play for him in the past and has since brought to into the Flyers’ organization at one time or another.  With that in mind, it should not be considered a coincidence if you soon see a name like Devan Dubnyk’s (goaltender from the San Jose Sharks) pop up in the rumor mill linked to the City of Brotherly Love. This now 34-year-old (who stands at a towering 6’6 224 pounds) spent a total of 6 seasons with the Wild and was lured to Minnesota then consequently signed by Chuck when he was the acting GM for the Wild. Dubnyk might be willing to either waive his 10-team no-trade list or exclude Philadelphia from it for the chance at a fresh start somewhere else, if asked by San Jose: Things have not gone so well for this giant in California this season. Totaling just 3 wins on the season thus far and an unimpressive 3.18 G.A.A. paired with a .898 SV% up to this point, Dubnyk just isn’t up to par to the kind of numbers he was able to achieve during his time in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. In saying all this, it’s quite easy to see why the Sharks (who currently sit in the 7^th seed in the west) would probably be more-than-willing to part with (and possibly retain part of) his expiring salary of $4.3 million in order to gain some draft-pick compensation for their failed experiment. Dubnyk would probably come cheaper than Bernier and could provide similar results if given the chance, given his extensive history in the league- he has 150 more games of NHL experience than Bernier.

One more familiar face that could entice the Flyers’ GM enough to snap him up off the trade wire is yet another former Wild goaltender: Darcy Kuemper now of the Arizona Coyotes. Kuemper spent 5 seasons in Minn. and Chuck not only drafted him back in 2009 in the 6^th round but also thought so highly of him that he re-signed Darcy during his tenure as the Wild’s general manager. Kuemper stands at an equally impressive 6’5 and 215 pounds. He is now just 30 years old and has done quite well for the Coyotes over the last four seasons he has spent there. But, as it stands now, Kuemper too finds himself trying to recover from a nagging injury that he sustained early this season, hence the reason why Arizona finds themselves on the outside of the playoff race looking in, as opposed to last year where they were lucky enough to make the post season. Set to return to action soon, this snazzy-dressing goalie who always has the most creative pad designs and helmet artwork may need to design a new pad scheme because the Flyers may feel the need to dial long distance to the desert in order to acquire his services. Hopefully, Chuck could entice the Coyotes enough to both part with him and agree to pay a portion of his $4.5 million dollar salary for the rest of this season and next. This would negate the need for the Flyers to then bring back the aging Brian Elliott next season as well. 

Again, while none of these moves may be sought after by most Philadelphia fans who still believe Hart to be this team’s future (this writer included!!), the sad reality of it all is that the Flyers ARE IN FACT actively looking for some help in the blue paint. Whether it’s one of the above-mentioned goalies who soon finds themselves stepping off a plane at the Philadelphia International Airport to join his new team, or whether Carter Hart can find within his own heart the will to win again (before it is too late) remains to be seen; Let’s just hope that whatever happens will assist the Flyers on their return to their winning ways.