Carter Hart and the Lessons of History
The majority of Flyers fans seem to be aware that it's unlikely that top goaltending prospect Carter Hart will make the team's opening-night NHL roster. He is more likely than not to spend at least one full season in the American Hockey League with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. However, there are some who inevitably will be disappointed when and if Hart is assigned to the AHL team's camp at some point in the weeks to come.
On the Flyers' official website, there's an article on the challenges that await in Hart's first pro season. While the 20-year-old appears to have the physical skills and, just as important, the mental maturity to navigate the learning curve and eventually emerge on the other side as an NHL goaltender, he'll have to prove it on the ice. His junior career, stellar as it was, is now in the past. The slate wipes clean, and he'll have to prove himself as a pro.
Hart recognizes this fact, although he is a competitor who isn't about to simply concede that he has little chance of immediately jumping over Brian Elliott, Michal Neuvirth and Alex Lyon on the depth chart. Phantoms goaltender Anthony Stolarz also has a bit of NHL experience, but is coming off two serious knee injuries that cost him a chance to play in the 2017 playoffs and then kept him out of nearly the entire 2017-18 season.
If Hart were to make the Flyers right out of junior hockey, he'd make franchise history. No goaltending prospect drafted or signed in Flyers history has ever made a direct jump from junior hockey to the National Hockey League. The closest exception would be Maxime Ouellet.
Drafted by the Flyers in the first round (22nd overall) of the 1999 NHL Draft -- after the Flyers had used their 1995 first-round pick on goalie Brian Boucher and then their first pick (second round) of the 1997 Draft on goaltender Jean-Marc Pelletier -- Ouellet enjoyed a very strong draft-plus-one season for the Quebec Remparts in the high-scoring Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
During the 1999-2000 NHL season, 23-year-old rookie Boucher took the NHL by storm in the second half of the season. He displaced veteran John Vanbiesbrouck as the Flyers' starter and then backstopped the team to within one elusive win away from the 2000 Stanley Cup Final. Despite appearing in just 35 regular season games, Boucher was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team, placed 6th in the Calder Trophy balloting and 9th in the Vezina Trophy race. In the summer of 2000, the Flyers jettisoned Vanbiesbrouck and drafted 29-year-old Czech goaltender Roman Cechmanek as a potential backup option for Boucher. In the meantime, the hype coming out Canadian junior hockey was that Ouellet was going to be even better than Boucher in the near future.
Ouellet, 19 years old at the time, was not yet eligible for the AHL under the NHL/CHL/AHL Age Rule established back in 1979 when the NHL lowered the NHL Draft eligibility age followed the merger with the World Hockey Association (which had drafted and employed a handful of "underage" players as an attempted competitive advantage to beat the NHL to top talent). As such, he either had to play for the Flyers or be returned to his Quebec League team. Figuring there was a chance he would not be back in the Q, Quebec had traded Ouellet to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
During the 2000 preseason, Ouellet beat out Cechmanek and Neil Little for an opening-night NHL roster spot. Under the terms of Cechmanek's NHL contract, a $1 million one-way deal ($300,000 in signing bonus, $700,000 in salary), if he was assigned to the AHL, he had the option of returning to Europe and could keep his signing bonus while forfeiting the salary. However, he was told that Ouellet's stay in the NHL might be brief. Cechmanek opted to stay put, and appeared in three AHL games; one of which he was kicked out of during a multi-player line brawl.
In the meantime, Ouellet appeared in two games for the Flyers; one start and one relief appearance. He was deemed not quite ready for prime time. After sitting unused for awhile behind Boucher, he was sent on a 10-day AHL conditioning assignment on Oct. 17 (which was allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement). On Oct. 27, 2000, the Flyers assigned Ouellet to Rouyn-Noranda for the rest of the season. No one knew it at the time, but Ouellet would never again appear in a Flyers uniform.
Ouellet had a good (but not spectacular) 2000-01 season in the Quebec League, and was the starter for Team Canada at the World Junior Championships, where his play earned mixed reviews. There were reports of him struggling with adjustments on long shots and with some of his rebounds. American Hockey League eligible the next season, he was assigned to the Phantoms and eventually traded late in the 2001-02 season to the Washington Capitals in the deal that briefly brought Adam Oates to the Flyers.
At the NHL level, Boucher hit a major sophomore-season slump and Cechmanek unseated him as the starter. The unorthodox Cechmanek went on to win the Bobby Clarke Trophy as Flyers MVP (for the first of two times), was first-runner up for the Vezina Trophy, placed fourth in the Hart Trophy balloting and played in the NHL All-Star Game. However, he had an uneven playoff series against Buffalo with an atrocious outing in the elimination game; starting a pattern of wild playoff inconsistency that continued throughout his three-season stay in Philadelphia after winning five championships in the Czech Extraliga.
Ouellet's career never took off in the NHL. The hype of the fall of 2000 died down quickly, and Max ended up becoming primarily a serviceable journeyman AHL goaltender. He appeared in a total of 12 NHL games between the Flyers, Capitals and Vancouver Canucks.
Every goaltender will rise or fall on his own merits, and in his own time. Just because Ouellet and others did not make it has no bearing on Hart's short-term or long-term future. However, the odds of being able to successfully leapfrog the minor leagues entirely are quite slim. A few, such as Tom Barasso and Grant Fuhr did it, and the likes of Patrick Roy and Carey Price jumped into the NHL with Montreal the season after playing primarily in the Calder Cup playoffs following the end of their junior careers.
Within Flyers history, Sergei Bobrovsky jumped directly into the NHL from the KHL after dazzling in his first training camp in September 2010. However, he was 22-years-old by that point and had two full pro seasons under his belt in Russia; certainly a steep jump given the rink, stylistic and off-ice cultural adjustments but still against a backdrop of playing against high-level pros for a few years beforehand.
A better comparison to Hart's stature entering this season might be the late Pelle Lindbergh in his pre-NHL years. Arguably, the gifted Swede had the top pedigree of any Flyers goaltending prospect to come along before Hart.
In 1979, a 19-year-old Lindbergh won Best Goaltender honors at the World Junior Championships. The next year, he starred for Sweden at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid (so much so that he was named Swedish Athlete of the Month for February 1980, beating out Olympic gold medal skier Ingemar Stenmark).
Coming over to North America for the 1980-81 season, Lindbergh was an instant AHL sensation. Playing for the Maine Mariners, he swept every major individual award for which he was eligible, winning AHL Most Valuable Player, Goaltender of the Year, and Rookie of the Year honors along with leading the Maine Mariners to within two wins of the Calder Cup. If not for torn quadriceps suffered in the finals -- which he tried to play through but struggled -- the Mariners stood a good chance of winning the series.
A goalie can hardly have a more spectacular run-up to NHL candidacy than Lindbergh did. Guess where he started his second pro season? Back in the AHL, because the Flyers still had NHL All-Star Pete Peeters (himself a Flyers farm system product) on the roster. Guess where Lindbergh spent most of the season? Yes, in the AHL apart from two short stints with the big club. It was only after the Flyers traded Peeters to Boston for Brad McCrimmon that a roster spot opened up for Lindbergh.
Lindbergh played in the NHL All-Star Game as a rookie. However, he was set back by a broken wrist suffered in a midseason Flyers exhibition game at the Spectrum against the Russian national team. He was not as effective after his return. Lindbergh had a disastrous, and nearly career-threatening, second NHL season that included a temporary demotion back to the AHL. It was the first real adversity that had ever hit him after his early career took off so rapidly, and Lindbergh struggled to cope. He was also dealing with a tough personal issue at the time (the cancer diagnosis of one of his two older sisters, who ultimately passed away within two years of Lindbergh's fatal car crash).
Lindbergh's third NHL season was magical; a total 180 from year two. Entrenched as starter by new coach Mike Keenan with technical and emotional support from goaltending coach Bernie Parent, Lindbergh won the Vezina Trophy, was a finalist for the Hart Trophy and backstopped the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Finals and a Game 1 win over the dynastic Edmonton Oilers. Ultimately, the Oilers prevailed the next three games in fairly close contests. Lindbergh, in a twist of fate, suffered torn quadriceps (this time in the other leg) in Game 4 of the Final. Backup goalie Bob Froese played Game 5; a blowout win for Edmonton to end the series.
Prior to his car crash in the wee hours of Nov. 10, 1985, Lindbergh was actually off to a better start than he had been over the first six weeks of the prior season although he was still ramping up back to his A-game level. The Flyers, meanwhile, were rattling off a major winning streak with both Lindbergh and Froese in goal. Lindbergh and the Flyers agreed to a contract extension that would have made the 26-year-old defending Vezina Trophy winner the highest paid goalie in the NHL.
Just like that, it was all over. Lindbergh was gone.
One season later, rookie goalie Ron Hextall came along to win the Vezina Trophy and the Conn Smythe Trophy in one of the best rookie seasons by a goaltender in NHL history; and the best season of Hextall's career in the NHL although he had some other good ones.
Even Hextall, the winningest goalie in Flyers franchise history (Parent dealt with injuries in 1975-76 and 1976-77, had a bounceback year in 1977-78, and then suffered a career-ending eye injury the next year), spent his share of time in the minors: two full seasons, including a stint in Kalamazoo before becoming a regular with Hershey. When Lindbergh died, although the organization believed Hextall's potential to be higher than that of teammate Darren Jensen, the feeling was that Hextall was not quite NHL-ready yet. The ultra-fiery competitor had been through ups and downs in junior hockey as well as his early minor league career, so Jensen got the call to go up to Philly to back up Froese (who would have been traded to the LA Kings for future Flyers defenseman Jay Wells if not for the crash).
Froese actually placed as a Vezina Trophy finalist in 1984-85, losing out to future Flyer Vanbiesbrouck, but won the Jennings Trophy. However, Keenan and Flyers general manager Bob Clarke felt all along that, while Froese had impressive stats, he was a backup-caliber goaltender on a contender or a starting-caliber type for a non-contender. That feeling was reinforced by Froese's shaky performance vs. brilliant play by Vanbiesbrouck as the Flyers fell in the first round round to the underdog Rangers. The next season, Hextall quickly unseated Froese as starter, and Froese was traded to the Rangers to back up Vanbiesbrouck while defenseman Kjell Samuelsson came to the Flyers.
Former Flyers goalie Steve Mason is another interesting case. He more or less made the direct jump to the NHL at age 20, playing only three AHL games before a permanent recall to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Prior to turning pro, he'd won OHL Goaltender of the Year (2006-07), an OHL championship (20007-08), a World Junior Championship gold medal (2007-08), WJC Best Goaltender (2007-08) and WJC Most Valuable Player (2007-07) honors.
As an NHL rookie in 2008-09, despite having a mere three games of AHL experience before his recall, Mason won the Calder Trophy as NHL Most Valuable Player, placed second in the Vezina Trophy race and fourth in the Hart Trophy race. Basically, he was set up for a big fall after nothing but success.
When adversity hit the next year, a mentally still-immature Mason had no idea how to handle it. He struggled for nearly three seasons and was eventually displaced as starter by future two-time Vezina winner Bobrovsky before getting a desperately needed change of scenery and reviving his career to a large degree in Philadelphia. He's now back in limbo as an unsigned UFA after two concussions last season and being quickly leapfrogged in Winnipeg by Connor Hellebuyck.
If one wants to go all the way back to Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Parent, even with him it wasn't a rocket ship ride to fast and sustained NHL success. After winning the Memorial Cup and starring for the Niagara Falls Flyers ,he spent some minor league time in Oklahoma City. Parent then went through NHL ups and downs with the Boston Bruins and Flyers (during his first stint).
It wasn't until he had mentally transforming stints in Toronto and the WHA's Philadelphia Blazers before returning to the Flyers at age 28 that he went from being a good goalie to a great one. It took some tutelage on mental toughness from his idol, Jacques Plante, before Bernie was ready to take the final step to superstar status. Years later, he did the same as a coach to Lindbergh.
There is a good chance that Carter Hart's NHL future lies closer to the more successful goalies in this historical roll call than to someone such as Ouellet, although predictions of NHL stardom are unfair at this point. Only time will tell, and he will have to prove it on the ice the same as every one who came before him and will come after.
However, there are three important that the history does teach us:
1) There's no shame in a goalie prospect spending time in the American Hockey League before the NHL, because vast majority of goalies prove to need it.
2) Junior hockey success does not necessarily translate to a successful career in the NHL. This is true for goalies as well as forwards and defensemen.
3) Even early NHL success that follows a stellar junior career is not a guarantee of long-term success. There will almost inevitably be adversity and setbacks, sometimes significant ones, that the young goalie will have to have the mental toughness as well as the physical skill to navigate.
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Quick Hits: September 9, 2018
1) On-ice work at the Flyers 2018 Rookie Camp starts on Monday at the Skate Zone in Voorhees. The players are scheduled to take the ice at 11 a.m. ET on both Monday and Tuesday before Wednesday's Rookie Game against the New York Islanders' prospects. A rookie camp preview article on 5 things to watch in the next few days will be posted later today on the Flyers' official website.
2) September 9 Flyers Alumni Birthday: Len Hachborn (1961).
3) Later this month, the Flyers Alumni Team kicks off its annual schedule of charity fundraising games across the Delaware Valley. Here's the upcoming schedule:
On Sept. 22 at the Skate Zone in Voorhees at 5 p.m., several Flyers Alumni will participate in the 3rd Annual WCRE Game, raising money for multiple local charities and charitable organizations, including the Flyers Alumni Association.
The 5th Annual Athletes Helping Athletes (AHA) showcase will be held in October, with the main event being the Flyers Alumni Team playing Team AHA at Revolution Ice Gardens (1621 Mearns Rd, Warminster, PA) on Oct. 12 at 7:35 p.m. ET.
The Sixth Annual Faceoff Against Cancer, with proceeds directly benefiting selected local cancer patients, will be at Hatfield Ice (350 County Line Road, Colmar, PA) on Oct. 13.