It may have surprised some people when Elliotte Friedman reported that the Philadelphia Flyers could be looking to add a few pieces at this year’s NHL trade deadline. The Flyers were still going to sell, as they did with the Sean Walker trade, but adding an inexpensive forward or goalie could be an option for Philadelphia.
We looked at five goalies that the Flyers should target at the deadline if they’re looking for a backup earlier this week, and one of those netminders was placed on waivers on Thursday.
Along with our old friends Brendan Lemieux and Tony DeAngelo, the Carolina Hurricanes waived goaltender Antti Raanta. With Frederik Andersen set to return, the Canes elected to waive Raanta to clear cap space rather than keeping the veteran netminder on the roster.
The 34-year-old veteran has spent time with four teams in his 11-year career. This is Raanta’s third year in Carolina and it’s been going a lot worse than his first two.
Raanta is 12-7-2 with a career-worst .872 save percentage (SV%) through 24 games (20 starts). His goals-against average (GAA) of 2.99 is respectable but only due to the defensive style that the Hurricanes play. According to MoneyPuck, Raanta has the eighth-worst goals saved above expected in the league at -9.3. For reference, Ersson is at 3.5 with Petersen at -5.3 (in five starts).
Before this year, however, Raanta went 34-8-7 with a .911 SV% and 2.34 GAA in 55 games (52 starts) with Carolina. That’s more or less in line with his career numbers of .915 SV% and 2.48 GAA.
The Flyers want to give Samuel Ersson a chance to prove that he can be a starting goalie in this league, but they also need a competent backup who can win games as the team pushes for the playoffs. Cal Petersen proved to not fit that mold and although Felix Sandstrom had a solid start against Ottawa, his overall numbers both in the NHL and AHL leave much to be desired.
While Raanta’s numbers this year aren’t impressive, he’s shown that he is capable of playing solid hockey in net, especially in the playoffs. Raanta made six starts in last year’s postseason, going 3-3 with a .909 SV% and 2.48 GAA. He also started 13 games in the 2022 playoffs, going 6-5 with a .922 SV% and 2.26 GAA.
Most importantly, Raanta is a free agent after this season and carries just a $1.5 million cap hit.
Raanta is a veteran who can help mentor Ersson and also take the load off with more confidence than Petersen or Sandstrom. It doesn’t hurt that he has postseason experience and the Flyers would face off against the Hurricanes in the first round if the playoffs started today.
I would’ve probably given Carolina a mid-to-late round pick for Raanta’s services, so getting a chance to claim him off waivers is something that the Flyers shouldn’t pass up.
