Ice Breakers: Teams are leery of Carter Hart with 2018 WJC investigation looming

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna discussed why NHL teams are cautious about acquiring elite goaltender Carter Hart from the Philadelphia Flyers due to the ongoing 2018 Canadian World Junior team investigation. 

Mike McKenna: General Manager Danny Briere is surely open for business, and one of those may include goaltender Carter Hart. Where do things stand with the talented netminder? 

Frank Seravalli: Well, you’re a big fan of Hart; you look at his save percentage, you wrote a story about it this week, and even that number, he played better than that number would indicate and has the talent and pedigree to get there and get to that next level and needs better support in front of him.

I would agree there are a number of other teams that agree and that are interested, but I’ll tell you that I don’t think anything is imminent; the Flyers are listening, but I don’t think they are pushing by any means to move Carter Hart much, in the same way, they felt they had to move Ivan Provorov, they know they have to do something with Kevin Hayes, and I imagine a similar conversation will arise for Tony DeAngelo as well.

So that’s the Flyers’ thought process, and I’ve asked a bunch of teams around the league about Hart and where does this go. I got to tell you, the thing that hasn’t really been said publicly but is definitely under the surface behind the scenes is a lot of teams are leery about any player’s connection to the 2018 Team Canada World Junior team. Knowing that the investigation is complete, and knowing that there may be punishment or they may not be on the other end of it. Nobody wants to go crazy and acquire a player and potentially have that player sit out. I am NOT saying anything about Hart and his potential involvement in that. I think it just covers the entire roster. A bunch of GMs are sitting around saying what do we do, and that could potentially impact a deal involving Carter Hart until we have some clarity.

You can watch the full episode here…