Hockey Imagines

Rookie | Carter Hart

#79, Goalie for the Philadelphia Flyers
Word Count: 3.0 K

"We have a new goalie starting today."

I raise my eyebrow at Scott Gordon, the Flyers' coach as of yesterday. I don't know him well, but what I do know is that he's trying to piece the team back together, and that's what we really need right now. "What do you mean, we have a new goalie starting today? We have a game tonight against the Red Wings. We can't start fresh with a new goalie. That's basically asking for a loss."

He sighs. "I understand your frustration, but this is something that needs to happen. All of our other goalies are injured or just aren't ready, and this kid is good. He's been playing for our AHL affiliate, and I think he's ready to bump up to the big leagues. Please just work with him. You're our goaltending coach, and this needs to happen."

"Fine. What's his name? Can you get me his playing profile?"

"Carter Hart. He's played 18 AHL games this season. He was picked 48th overall in the 2016 draft. He's a really good kid, twenty. And he's talented. From what I've heard, he's easy to work with and he takes well to feedback, so you shouldn't have a hard time with him."

"Okay." I take the file he hands me. "Extra info?" I ask, filing through it quickly.

He nods. "Yup. Review, and he'll be here in the next half hour. We don't have much time to practice, so get him started as soon as he gets here."

"Yes, sir." I give him a nod before hurrying off. I need to go over everything about this guy so I know what I need to work on with him.

"Canadian Hockey League Goaltender of the year? That's a good title." I mutter, sifting through his statistics. His save rate is almost perfect, and it leaves no doubt for how good he is. But that might change with the pressures of the National Hockey League. This isn't like the AHL or the Canadian League.

"You Y/N?" I hear from the stands below me. It's a guy wearing a Flyers jersey with the number 79 on the sleeves. And he's in goalie gear, so this is my boy.

I nod and hurry down the stands, holding out my hand for him to shake. "Nice to meet you, Carter Hart."

He chuckles, raising an eyebrow. "You know my name already? I feel honored."

"And why would that be?"

He looks shocked that I ask. "You're one of the best goaltending coaches in the NHL. Plus, you broke a ridiculous amount of records in the Olympics a couple years back. You're a legend. I'm honored that you agreed to work with me, to be honest."

I shrug it off. I'm not exactly fond of talking about my accomplishments. It feels like bragging, and I've never been a fan of people who only ever want to talk about all the amazing things they've done. And I sure as hell am not a hypocrite. "Its my job to know about Flyers' goalies. Anyway, let's get started. We're working with a limited amount of time." He nods and I quickly tie on my skates so we can get started.

I might have played goalie professionally, but throughout my life, I transitioned through playing different positions, so I'll be trying to score while giving him tips and pointers on what he needs to fix.

"I'm going to shoot a couple different ways, and your goal, of course, is to prevent me from succeeding. Now, this is just a test to see what you can handle. Don't go out of your comfort zone or anything like that. Just do what you can, and we'll work on whatever you're struggling with, okay?" He nods and gets into position. I stay back by the halfway mark, playing with the puck to give him time to decide on how he wants to approach this.

After going through a couple different things, I've picked out a few of his weaknesses that we need to work on. "Okay, so one of the spots that you really need to work on is the very top right corner. Your right, not mine. I scored twice there. You need to be more aware of that. If a couple people score on you that way, others are going to start to notice, and they'll take advantage of it. Even if it's your weak spot, try a little harder so it isn't so noticeable."