Flyers Need To Use 2012 Bobrovsky Trade As Lesson in 2023 and Beyond

The referenced unknown goaltender they took a swing at? Current Florida Panthers Starting goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky.

At the start of the 2010/11 season, after a training camp injury to Michael Leighton, Bobrovsky came into the Flyers crease and hit the ground running. He played so well, he managed to keep Boucher in the backup job, and when Leighton returned from his injury, he was waived and sent to the minors and ultimately played just 1 NHL game that entire season, after helping backstop the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final the previous season.

Bobrovsky had his struggles throughout the season, as any rookie goalie usually does, but he played in 54 total games, with 52 of those games being starts. He recorded a 2.59GAA and a .915 Sv%. However, in the playoffs he struggled mightily. It didn't help matters that then-head coach Peter Laviolette had a bad habit of switching goalies at the first sign of trouble, and never did quite give the kid a chance to regain his footing.

After the Flyers exited the playoffs, big moves - and subsequently big mistakes - were made in the off-season. The biggest of which was the signing of goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov to a now-CBA-disallowed 9-year contract, which would ultimately and effectively block Bobrovsky from ever being the starting goaltender in Philadelphia.

With the writing on the wall in everything but blood, Bobrovsky made it quite clear to the team, through his agent, that if he wasn't traded by the time his contract was up he would not re-sign. He was an RFA at the time, so he couldn't just "go anywhere" once his contract was up, but he had one option some don't have easily available to them. If he wasn't traded he'd just return to Russia and play in the KHL.

The following season, Bobrovsky was Bryzgalov's backup; even outplaying him enough to be named the starting goalie for the 2012 Winter Classic against the Rangers in January. He played in a very limited(compared to the previous season) 29 games 25 of those were starts, and he came away with a 3.02GAA, .899Sv%; which clearly isn't great, but considering the circumstances and his feelings was probably better than could have been expected.

By the following off-season, with just one year remaining on his contract and the ultimatum still hanging over their head, the Flyers needed to do something to make sure they didn't lose the goalie for nothing. In order to ensure that didn't happen, on June 22, 2012 the Flyers shipped Bobrovsky to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a second round and fourth round pick in the 2012 draft.

In Columbus, in the 2012/13 lockout shortened season, Bobrovsky thrived. He played in 38 games, 37 of them starts, with a GAA of 2.00 and a .932 Sv% and was named a Vezina Trophy winner. Some put asterisk next to the accomplishment because it was done in a shortened season, but the excellence was not a fluke or due to playing in a shortened season as in 2013/14 he played in and started 58 games recorded a GAA of 2.38 and a .923 Sv%.

Meanwhile, in Philadelphia despite signing Bryzgalov to the huge 9-year deal, the Flyers remained on the hunt for their "franchise goaltender" as by the 2014 season Bryzgalov was bought out of the remaining 7 years of his contract and the Flyers had a goaltending duo of Steve Mason and Ray Emery.

Fast forwarding a bit, as everyone is well aware by now, in round 2 of the 2016 draft, 48th overall, the Flyers selected goaltender Carter Hart. He was the first goalie taken in that draft. After spending two more dominating years in the WHL junior league, he was moved up to the AHL where he hit his first bout - though only a small one - of adversity. He struggled out of the gate which concerned many fans, but by late-November he finally found his stride a bit and was winning games consistently. When former GM Ron Hextall was dismissed from his duties and new (now former) GM Chuck Fletcher took over, due to numerous injuries, the Flyers were going through goalies like they go through water bottles. By mid-December, Fletcher had no choice but to recall Hart and see if he could at the very least hold his own in the NHL until Brian Elliott could return from his injury.

To everyone's surprise, he did more than just hold his own, and other then a one game appearance in the AHL during the Flyers by-week in 2018, Hart never returned to the AHL.

In 2019/20, in an unexpectedly short season Hart played in 43 games, starting 40 of them, and backstopped the Flyers into the second round of the playoffs; although in an extremely weird environment where teams played in an empty arena in July/August, with on fans in attendance due to the new virus that was still so unexplained the world was shut down in order for governments around the world to figure it out and try to get ahead of it.

In the playoffs, Hart played in all 14 games, recorded 9W, 5L with a 2.23GAA and a .926Sv% and 2(back-to-back) shutouts against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. Despite the odd circumstances brought on by the pandemic, the Flyers appeared to have finally found their "franchise goaltender".

Or so they thought.

That is until 2020/21, in another odd season due to the pandemic, where Hart hit his first major bout of adversity. The then-22 year old struggled with not being allowed to be a "normal" 22-year-old and being so far away from family. By seasons end, he'd played 27 games, starting in 25 of them, recorded 9W, 11L, 5OTL, and an ugly 3.16 GAA, and .877Sv%.

After admitting the pandemic caused issues he never expected to deal with, the now (then) 23-year-old was able to rebound a bit in the 2021/22 season playin in 45 games, starting 44 of them and recording 13W, 24L, 7OTL, a still pretty ugly 3.16GAA and a better but still not great .905 Sv%.

While he appeared to be back on track, some still had questions. Questions the now 24-year-old largely answered in the 2022/23 campaign as despite the awful team in front of him, he played a career high 55 games, starting 54 of them and recording 22W, 23L, 10OTL, a better(but still not great) 2.94GAA and a good(but could still be better) .907 Sv% and the Team MVP award for keeping his team in games and even stealing several games they had no business wining, except for the goaltending, throughout the season.

While these two stories aren't exactly the same(they didn't give up on Hart the season after he struggled) where they are similar is that Hart is still young. He'll turn 25 in August just before the start of the 2023/24 season, and the last time they gave up on a goalie 25 or younger he went on to make them eat crow for tossing him out the door too quickly.

The Flyers best bet, if Hart is willing to stick around all the way through his RFA days(and given his latest interview, it sounds as if he may be) is to use a tandem of Hart/Ersson and potentially get a 2-headed monster in net, before potential handing the reigns over to Ersson full-time. Shipping Hart out now, having an unproven Ersson and praying he turns into something, but then finding out he's a great backup option and can start in spurts, but can't hold down the fort for 30+ games, effectively puts the team right back where they started once again searching for the franchise/starting net minder when they already had one, but gave up too quickly.