Carter John Hart (born August 13, 1998) is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who is an unrestricted free agent.

[1][2] He originally wanted to be a forward like his father, who played for the NAIT Ooks, but found that he enjoyed making saves more than scoring goals.

[3] His parents hired sport psychologist John Stevenson, who previously worked with NHL player Braden Holtby, as a goaltender coach when Hart was ten years old.

[6] He won Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Top Goaltender awards at the end of the 2013–14 AMMHL season,[6] with a 1.92 goals against average (GAA) and a .937 save percentage (SV%).

[9] After displacing starting goaltender Austin Lotz in March 2015, Hart finished his rookie season with an 18–5–2–3 record and the lowest GAA (2.29) and second-highest save percentage (.915) in the WHL.

The NHL Central Scouting Bureau named him the top available North American goaltender in its 2016 midterm rankings,[16] and second in its final ratings.

Hart finished the season with a 32–11–6–2 record and led the WHL in goals against average (1.99), save percentage (.927) and shutouts (9),[20] again receiving the Silvertips' MVP award[14] and the Del Wilson Trophy.

[29] Hart began the 2018–19 season with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the Flyers' American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, earning his first professional-career shutout on December 10, 2018, in a 1–0 win against the Hershey Bears.

[30] His AHL career was short-lived, since he was recalled by the Flyers a week later after goaltender Anthony Stolarz was placed on the injured reserve list.

[38] On October 9, after defeating the New Jersey Devils in a 4–0 home opener, he was the youngest goaltender in Flyers history to record a shutout at the age of 21 years and 57 days.

[39] After straining a lower right abdominal muscle during practice on January 15, Hart missed nine consecutive games before returning on February 10 in a 4–1 victory against the Florida Panthers.

[45] The Flyers lost the second Eastern Conference round to the New York Islanders, with Hart taking the 4–0 game-seven loss to end the series on September 3, 2020.

"[48] Hart was particularly bedeviled by the Bruins, to whom he gave up three goals in under two minutes in an eventual 7–3 loss at the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe game on February 21.

[51] Hart, a restricted free agent during the 2021 offseason, signed a three-year contract extension with an average annual value of $3.979 million on August 9.

"[61] He uses a reactive-blocking technique rather than the butterfly style which he believes many goaltenders employ: "I'm not a guy who just drops right down, squats and hopes it hits you.

[69] Hart and the Peterborough Petes' Dylan Wells were selected as goaltenders for Hockey Canada at the 2015 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.

[21] After making 31 saves in the gold-medal game against the United States,[75] Hart gave up a shootout goal by Troy Terry to give Canada the silver medal.

[81] Hart recorded 22 saves in 50 minutes in his first game of the championship, against Denmark in the Group A preliminary round, combining with Mackenzie Blackwood for the shutout.