Philadelphia Flyers’ Carter Hart leaves game early with mid-body injury

The Philadelphia Flyers have announced that goaltender Carter Hart has left Wednesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres with a mid-body injury.

Hart, 25, appeared to suffer the injury early in the first period, as he was attended to by the training staff after a rough collision with Kyle Okposo, but he elected to tough it out at the time. However, midway through the first, he ended up leaving the game after allowing his second goal of the game to make it 2-1 Sabres. He stopped just three of five shots before Samuel Ersson replaced him in net.

There is currently no word on the severity of the injury or how long Hart will be out for, but considering the mid-body is where a goalie needs their flexibility, that could get in the way of a quick return. If Hart is out beyond this game, Ersson will likely split starting duties with Felix Sandstrom, who was just sent down to the AHL on a conditioning stint after not getting into any game action to start the year. Ersson has a 0-1-1 record, a .760 save percentage, and a league-worst -6.81 5v5 goals saved above expected in two games before Wednesday’s action.

Hart was off to a strong start to the season in the early-going, with a 4-3-0 record, a .921 save%, and 1.69 5v5 goals saved above expected in seven games before Wednesday’s game. He’s looking to continue his play from last season, as while he didn’t appear to be great on the surface with a 22-23-10 record and a .907 save%, he had a career-high 14.16 5v5 goals saved above expected after bailing out a Flyers team that was poor defensively.

Hart is a second-round pick of the Flyers from the 2016 NHL Draft, and has spent the entirety of his six-season career in Philadelphia. He’s in the final year of a three-year deal with a $3.979 million cap hit, and is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season.