Announced by general manager Daniel Briere on Tuesday afternoon, Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Carter Hart has requested a leave and has been granted a leave of absence from the team.
No further details have been provided by the team or player except that Hart is the one that started this process and that the team will have no further comments about the player leaving at this time.
In a corresponding move, the team has recalled veteran netminder Cal Petersen from the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms and to make room for the sizeable contract he has, placed Owen Tippett on Injured Reserve. Now, with Hart gone, it will be a tandem of Sam Ersson and Cal Petersen as the Flyers’ tandem for the foreseeable future.
Hart, 25, is in his sixth season in the NHL and has earned a 12-9-3 record through the 26 games he’s appeared in this season while averaging 2.80 goals against and has a .906 save percentage. Through some games, he has been a reason why the Flyers are performing better compared to what was expected before the 2023-24 began, but a whole lot of the goaltending success has been claimed by Ersson.
Ersson came on to the scene as a real unknown commodity but has simply just kept on performing well enough to claim a full NHL role. Through 22 appearances this season, he has a 12-6-3 record, a 2.36 goals against average, and a .909 save percentage — all comparable numbers to what the starter Hart has been doing for this, and the past few seasons.
Now, strictly speaking about hockey-related issues and nothing to do with anything off the ice, the Flyers are now in a precarious spot with solely Ersson as a potential starter, depending what Hart’s leave of absence looks like. The Flyers have 35 games remaining this season.
