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With Carter Hart off IR and Sam Ersson Playing Well, What’s Next for the Flyers and their Goalies?

January 5, 2023
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When we last left the Philadelphia Flyers, they were headed out on their post Christmas road trip to the West Coast and we were baffled by the weird situation surrounding goalie Carter Hart, who was lifted from the game in Carolina on Dec. 23rd with an “upper body injury” that anyone watching the game knew right away was a concussion:

He was placed into the concussion protocol, although the team wouldn’t say that until we finally said he was out with a concussion. He was placed on injured reserve and yet, an hour later was practicing with the team.

I reported he was being shut down until Thursday’s return home against Arizona, but I also said he wasn’t going on the California trip. Later that same day, the Flyers reversed course, sent him on the cross-country flight, and coach John Tortorella said he’d play in the last two games of the trip in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Hart played in neither. His trip out west was unnecessary.

But, rather than go with Felix Sandstrom, who has been Hart’s backup the entire first half of the season, Torts started Sam Ersson, who was called up for the game in Carolina because Sandstrom was sick.

In fact, Ersson started four straight games – including all three games in California.

The Flyers won all three, although beating San Jose and Anaheim is nothing to get too excited about, but Ersson did look good. It’s obvious that Torts is a fan, too:

But now the team is back home. There’s a game scheduled for Thursday night against Arizona and guess who will be back in net?

Yep. Hart is back. The Flyers announced he came off the IR on Wednesday. This, of course, is good news.

Except for one small detail – it leaves the Flyers with three goalies on the active roster.

So now what?

Well, considering how much money is currently being taken up on long-term injured reserve, the Flyers can afford to carry three goalies without much worry about salary cap compliance. However, it’s not an ideal scenario for the goalies, who have to rotate through practice, and one has to sit in the press box on game nights.

Do the Flyers want to go that route?

They will if they have to, but there are other options.

The first, and easiest option, would be to send Ersson back down to play for the Phantoms. He is waiver exempt and can go up and down as needed, so this is the path of least resistance. However, Ersson has impressed, especially in his last three starts. He was arguably their best goalie in training camp, and the Flyers feel like they have a very legit NHL goalie prospect in Ersson – and not just as a potential backup, but as a starter in the league.

As such, there is a belief that they would like to put that hypothesis to the test during the second half of the season. That would mean Ersson would continue to get a shot to prove himself in NHL games over the course of the next few months. Not bad for a 23-year-old 5th round pick (2018).

At the same time, the Flyers are going to play Hart a bunch, as he remains their clear-cut No.1 goalie, and deservedly so. This would leave Sandstrom on the outs.

The Flyers could try to send Sandstrom down to the Phantoms, but the difference between he and Ersson is Sandstrom is not waiver exempt. That means he’d have to clear waivers, going unclaimed by every other team in the NHL, for 24 hours, and only then can he be reassigned to Lehigh Valley.

That would be a risky play for the Flyers, as Sandstrom probably wouldn’t clear, and if he were claimed by another team, the Flyers would lose him for nothing, which doesn’t make putting him on waivers ideal.

There is one other option the Flyers could pursue, although it would only be a temporary fix to their conundrum, but it would buy them a little time.

Since Sandstrom has played in only one game in the last five weeks – a loss at Colorado on Dec. 13 – they could send him to the Phantoms for a conditioning assignment. Those max out at two weeks, which would give the Flyers a chance to look at Ersson a bit more in games that matter, while getting Sandstrom back into some game action.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Ahh, but there is a caveat. Sandstrom would have to agree to the conditioning assignment. Meaning, he could turn it down and force the Flyers hand to keep him on the NHL roster (making NHL money) or place him on waivers and cross their fingers that he wouldn’t be claimed.

If you’re Sandstrom, and this option were presented to you, you would have to think long and hard about it. You have to see the writing on the all, don’t you? He’s barely playing and it seems he has been surpassed on the depth chart by his fellow Swede.

In this hypothetical case, maybe forcing the Flyers hand would be the better option for him in that it guarantees his NHL salary if either the Flyers keep him or he is claimed by another team – where he could be given more of a chance to play. Or maybe he wants to continue to be a part of this organization, and would willingly accept that conditioning assignment. Either way, if the Flyers choose this path, it would get them back to just two goalies at the NHL level for a couple weeks, and allow them to kick the can down the road before a decision had to be made.

The greater question is one for down the road – and it could be way down the road, as in the summer – and that is, if Ersson shows he’s No. 1 goalie caliber, then what do you do?

Do you carry two No. 1-types and let them battle it out? Or, do you try and trade one of them? Is Ersson attractive enough on his own to other teams, or would one half of a season not be enough of a track record?

Would you go outside the box and consider trading Hart, as he has an established NHL pedigree that continues to grow and probably would garner a significant return that could benefit the rebuild?

Of course there are those around the league who wonder if any player from the 2018 Hockey Canada World Junior Team can be traded until the three-tiered, gang rape investigation (police, Hockey Canada, and NHL) is concluded – whether any of those players were involved or not or are indicted or not – which is a whole other element to the future that is rarely discussed, but lingers out there over the heads of those 22 players, some of which are prominent NHL’ers currently, including Hart.

Regardless, having an answer about what lies ahead for the Flyers in goal may not be as cut and dry as it once seemed, with Hart being a franchise goalie playing out of his mind and carrying a flawed team to within one win of the Eastern Conference finals just 26 months ago. He’s still the guy now. And, barring injury, will be for the rest of the season. If he’s still the guy when the 2023-24 season kicks off in October, the Flyers will be happy.

But if he’s not, and it’s Ersson, and the Flyers jump started their rebuild with some quality assets in return, they could be just as happy.

Only time will tell, with this hockey soap opera.

 

The post With Carter Hart off IR and Sam Ersson Playing Well, What’s Next for the Flyers and their Goalies? appeared first on Crossing Broad.

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