Flyers

Revisionist Carter Hart History: Is He Even that Good of a Goaltender?

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 28th, 2025 · 11:44 AM EDT

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Carter Hart was acquitted last week on charges of sexual assault, bringing to an end the Hockey Canada scandal that saw him depart Philadelphia as an unrestricted free agent following the 2023-2024 season.

While not guilty in a Canadian court of law, the question of whether or not he deserves a second NHL chance is based on actions he admitted to in public testimony. Namely, while intoxicated, he received oral sex from the anonymous woman in a hotel room, while Canada teammates performed sex acts they say were consensual. Hart testified that he was “open to sexual encounters.. as a single guy, I was having a good time that weekend… I’m 19 years old and there’s a naked girl in the room doing these things willingly. It was something I’d never seen before. He testified that that he texted a teammate and told him to come up to the hotel room and participate, but the teammate declined.

That’s the gist of it. Hart is innocent of sexual assault, but arguably guilty of displaying poor judgment and character by participating in a lascivious group act. Individual opinions are going to vary on that, as the NHL weighs whether or not to make the acquitted players eligible for reinstatement.

One thing you’ve probably seen in the post-verdict chatter is that the Flyers shouldn’t bring back Hart because he “wasn’t that good anyway,” or something along those lines. Is that true or does it amount to revisionist history?

For starters, it’s important to understand that –

1. The Flyers haven’t had a franchise goaltender in decades.
2. Hart was the closest thing to it.
3. It doesn’t mean he was amazing when compared to the rest of the league.

That’s the context to consider, that the bar for Flyers goaltending is historically so low that an average player can clear it.

Statistically, Hart finished the 2023-2024 season with 26 games played and a 2.80 goals against average and .906 save percentage. Those were 21st and 22nd in the NHL, respectively. Sam Ersson, who formed a good duo with Hart in the early of the year, finished with a 2.82 GAA and .890 save percentage, numbers that started well then dipped when the post-Hart burden was dropped on his shoulders. The following season, 2024-25, Ersson’s GAA was 3.14 and save percentage was .883 on a rebuilding Flyers team that stunk.

In six NHL seasons, Hart has never been an All Star or finalist for an award. He has a career .906 save percentage and 2.94 goals against. Going to advanced stats, Hockey Reference lists him with a -7.4 GSAA, which is goals saved against league average. When filtered to account for all qualified goaltenders in his six NHL seasons, his GAA is 64th and his save percentage is 53rd. At the same time, despite only playing 241 games, he’s faced 7,061 shots, which is 25th most in the league, so proof that he hasn’t exactly had prime Bundy and Eric Desjardins playing in front of him. He, and every Flyers goaltender, have largely backstopped poor squads that won nothing.

But to add some context for hockey casuals, here’s how the Vezina finalists finished this part season:

• Connor Hellebuyck: 2.01 GAA, .925 save percentage, 63 games played, 1,664 shots faced , eight shutouts
• Darcy Kuemper: 2.02 GAA, .922 save percentage, 50 games played, 1,168 shots faced, five shutouts
• Andrei Vasilevskiy: 2.18 GAA, .921 save percentage, 63 games played, 1,581 shots faced, six shutouts

That’s what tier 1 elite looks like. And the second level includes guys like Bob and Adin Hill and Logan Thompson, who all were better in 2024-2025 than Hart has been in his entire career.

So you ask yourself if Carter Hart is “good.” Yeah, he’s probably “good,” or average to above-average. But he’s not a top 15 or even top 20 NHL goaltender and his best years were before the COVID-19 pandemic, so this is one of those things where the guy probably looks like an ideal target because the other Flyers goaltenders haven’t been any better.

Make no mistake, if this was prime Martin Brodeur being acquitted, 32 NHL teams would find a place for him. But going out and absolutely having to have Carter Hart at this point in time would be like Sixers fans saying that Ben Simmons must return. It feels like that ship has sailed, for more than one reason.