Carter Hart hasn’t played an NHL game in nearly two years. He’s set to play his first game with the Vegas Golden Knights exactly 682 days after his last start.
“He needs to play,” said Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy on the decision to start Hart. “He went down to Henderson and got some games in, and he’s been practicing with us. So, let’s get him in there. He’s eligible. He needs reps, he needs starts. There’s going to be a little bit of rust, so let’s get going now.”
Hart will start on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks. Beyond that, the Golden Knights don’t have a set plan for his deployment.
“We’ll make that determination here going forward,” said Cassidy on Monday. “The schedule is favorable, in terms of there’s not a ton of back-to-backs, so we can probably space it out, if that’s the direction we want to go. Akira has played well, too… He has to stay sharp. So I’m sure you’ll see a lot of both goalies. But Carter’s waited a long time to play, so he’s definitely going to get his share of starts.
“I don’t want to say that he’s going to play 70% of the games, or whatever,” Cassidy finished. “Let’s get him in there, get him working, see how he recovers from an NHL game, and go from there. We want him to be ready when he’s in there, physically. There will be a mental battle, getting in there and playing every night, and getting back to being an NHL goalie. It’s been a while, so we want to make sure we take care of that part as well.”
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The Golden Knights know it might be a long road until Hart finds his game, but they aren’t worried. They’re no strangers to easing goaltenders into the NHL. In fact, they already did it this season with Carl Lindbom.
“We kind of went through it with Lindbom, to a certain extent,” said Cassidy. “Every game, you hope they get a little more up to speed… We’ve been through that a little bit, so we’ll balance it.
“We also know he needs to get his starts; he just has to,” Cassidy continued. “So, we’re going to have to be patient, no matter what the result. And we don’t know what that’ll be. We’re all hoping he’ll go out there and be terrific in his first game, but missing that much time, I’m expecting rust. And in order to shake off the rust, you’ve got to play. So, he’s going to get his fair share of starts, and hopefully he gets a little more comfortable every time.”
