Carter Hart’s name brought up in Edmonton following Stan Bowman’s hiring

Earlier this summer, the Philadelphia Flyers did not issue a qualifying offer for goalie Carter Hart to retain his rights, making him an unrestricted free agent. It was no surprise that Carter was not qualified by Philly as he was among five players charged with sexual assault in February in the 2018 Hockey Canada investigation. He took an indefinite leave of absence back in January when it was confirmed that he and Michael McLeod and Cal Foote of the New Jersey Devils, Dillon Dube of the Calgary Flames and former NHL player Alex Formenton were charged with sexually assaulting a woman in 2018 after a Hockey Canada Foundation fundraising gala.

Hart made 25 starts for the Flyers in the 2023-24 season before he left to deal with much bigger issues. What is surpring on Wednesday is to see the goaltender trending with the Oilers as the team confirmed this morning the hiring of Stan Bowman as their new general manager.

Hart is trending because fans are criticizing Edmonton’s decision to hire Bowman, whom they say will go on to sign controversial players, or even worse, players that also have a past with incidents of a nature of sexual assaults or harassment.

Fans are being ruthless and these are some of the tweets that have Hart trending ever since Bowman was confirmed as the new GM of the Oilers:

Fans have been quite vocal on who should be the next GM in Edmonton, replacing Ken Holland who left his duties after the past season. Many candidates were mentioned in rumours, though recently Bowman had taken over the chatter, especially when he got the support from Sheldon Kennedy, the co-founder Respect Group.

As you remember, Bowman resigned his position in 2021 after revelations came to light about the cover up involving the sexual assaults of Kyle Beach that went unaddressed by the team. Bowman was recently re-instated by the NHL and is free to seek official employment starting on July 10. Kennedy indicates in his letter to the public that Bowman is ready to return to the NHL after he got help to learn more about the issues of sexual abuse and the critical role of bystanders in confronting and addressing maltreatment effectively. As a sexual abuse victim in a case that rocked the hockey world in the 1990s, Kennedy has spent the past 20-plus years of his life helping to reshape the grassroots of hockey and make the sport a safer place. In his introductory press conference on Wednesday, Bowman said he spoke with Kyle Beach on different occasions, also last night to give him the heads up on his new job. 

However, fans clearly disagree with Kennedy's assessment , getting Hart involved in their responses and reactions to Bowman’s hiring.

In total, Hart played 227 total games for the Flyers, including 218 starts. He was a second-round pick by the Flyers in the 2016 NHL draft.