The Penguins announced postgame that veteran center Jeff Carter is retiring after a 19-year NHL career. He’d spent the last three seasons and change in Pittsburgh, maintaining his status as a regular but slipping to bottom-six minutes as his point production and all-around game declined.
The two-time Stanley Cup champion cited family reasons as his primary reason for stepping away from the game, confirming he’ll stick around in the Pittsburgh area moving forward:
Yeah, we’re staying. We moved here in August full-time. We’ve loved it. It’s been a great fit for our family. It’s central to both our extended families. It has worked out really well.
Carter’s career began with the cross-state rival Flyers, who selected him with the 11th overall pick in 2003 as part of arguably the most star-studded first round in modern history. The now-39-year-old wouldn’t make his NHL debut for another two years, sticking around with the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League while a labor lockout canceled the 2004-05 campaign. At age 21, he immediately stepped in as a solid complementary scorer, scoring 23 goals and 42 points in 2005-06 while averaging only 12:04 per game.
He was promoted to Philadelphia’s top six the following season, where he largely remained for the Flyers and three other clubs before being demoted last season. By 2008-09, he’d cemented himself as one of the better two-way centers in the league, leading a deep Flyers offense in scoring with a career-high 46 goals and 84 points, averaging nearly 21 minutes per game.
His point production trailed off marginally over the next two seasons but nonetheless remained a top-six fixture. Injuries began to take a minor toll, as he was limited to 12 appearances in the Flyers’ run to the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Philly inked him to an 11-year, $58MM extension early in the 2010-11 campaign, but he would never play a game for the franchise under that deal. Then-Flyers GM Paul Holmgren had a quick case of buyer’s remorse amid his early 2010s roster-retooling, dealing Carter to the Blue Jackets for young winger Jakub Voráček, a first-round pick that became captain Sean Couturier, and a third-round pick that became depth contributor Nick Cousins.
It was a slam-dunk deal for Philly, who got 604 points and 727 games out of Voráček, 795 games and 498 points (and counting) out of Couturier, and three seasons of decent depth scoring out of Cousins. Carter played less than a full season in Columbus, as he was flipped to the Kings at the 2012 trade deadline after just 15 goals and 39 games in a Blue Jackets uniform.
His offensive peak may have been in Philadelphia, but he found the most success in Los Angeles. He posted nine points in 16 games down the stretch in 2012 before tying for the league lead with eight goals in 20 postseason games as the eight-seed Kings had one of the most dominant Cinderella runs in professional sports, winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history while going 16-4. Splitting duties with former Flyers teammate Mike Richards as some of the Kings’ primary secondary scorers behind Anže Kopitar, he returned with a vengeance in 2014, erupting for 10 goals and 25 points in 26 playoff games as L.A. captured its second championship in three years.
Carter eclipsed the 60-point mark in each of the next three seasons and was on his way to doing so again in 2017-18 until an October skate cut caused tendon damage in his lower left leg, requiring surgery and keeping him out for over four months. He was strong in limited action, posting 22 points in 27 games, but was held without a point in four playoff games as the Kings were quickly dispatched by the expansion Golden Knights in the first round.
Unfortunately, he was never the same after that. He managed 60 points combined over the following two seasons (136 games), posting a -41 rating in the process. After he was limited to eight goals and 19 points through the first 40 games of the COVID-shortened 2021 season, the retooling Kings traded the final season-and-a-half of his aforementioned extension to the Penguins for a pair of mid-round draft picks, retaining half his $5.27MM cap hit in the swap.
The move worked out well in the short-term for Pittsburgh. Carter had a resurgence in slightly increased minutes down the stretch, recording 11 points in 14 games and four goals and six playoff games as the Pens were eliminated in the first round by the Islanders. He put up 45 points the following season, his highest total in five years, but Pittsburgh was again dispatched in the first round, this time by the Rangers.
Given his mild rebound, Penguins GM Ron Hextall inked Carter to a two-year, $6.25MM extension midway through the 2021-22 campaign. Unfortunately, the unavoidable aging curve took effect sooner than they’d hoped, knocking his production down to 13 goals and 29 points last season while having his ice time slashed to its lowest since his rookie season. This year marked another significant slide, posting 11 goals and just four assists in 72 contests. He is coming off his best-ever year in the faceoff dot, winning 61.5% of his draws.
Carter’s final goal came earlier tonight in a 5-4 loss to the Isles, a power-play tally assisted by Sidney Crosby and Michael Bunting. All told, his 1,321 career games played stand alone at 63rd on the all-time list. He tallied 441 goals, 409 assists, and 850 points with a career +9 rating and captured Selke Trophy votes on four occasions (2009, 2011, 2016, 2017). His estimated career earnings to date are $76.5MM, per CapFriendly.
With Carter sticking around in Pittsburgh, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him take an off-ice role in GM Kyle Dubas’ front office. PHR extends its best wishes to Carter and his family in their next chapter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Geez. Didn’t realize he was still playing. Nice career, though.
All in all, a pretty decent career. Two Cup rings ain’t too shabby!
That Carter trade really screwed over the Jackets when they were on the precipice of being competitive…
He and Richards together were killers for my habs. I would also like to add they did Richards dirty by canceling his contact. He was prescribed oxyconton and in canada they had just changed there pills to oxy-neo, a tamper proof pill. ThursRichards broke a law and his contact was terminated
We’ll miss that back-hand shot of his.
And now only 6 players from that stacked ’03 draft are still active. Wow. Time sure flies.
The Penguins would sure be in a better place now if Carter had retired two years ago. With that, retiring now? No kidding. He hasn’t been able to play NHL hockey for two years now, and he’s out of contract. It wasn’t as if anyone would want to sign him.
Great career, glad he is off the books next year for the pens. Dubas has to do something special this offseason to unload either Karlsson, Jarry, and/or Malkin in order to do an on the fly rebuild without tearing it all down.
Geno owns his roster spot via full NMC.
Karlsson’s deal still has too much left to move without depleting value elsewhere, either by retaining part or taking back bad deals. Likely move is to keep him and hopefully try to use him better (he killed our PP most of the year, for ex.).
Jarry is the guy who might be moveable by just giving him away. He was decent most of the season, lots of shutouts but lots of clunkers too that hurt his overall numbers.
Offering Ned $3 million per year or so on a medium term deal, bringing up Blomqvist and using Jarry’s $5 million to shore up the third line and the 3rd par RHD spot would be the best realistic path they have.
I think the Pens could be playoff bound next year but it would take doing exactly that with literally giving Jarry away, bringing up Blom and keeping Ned (or even some kind of similarly priced veteran in FA). If they change a little on the Power Play where Malkin plays down rather than up high they will be in a much better position.
Let the young kids play. Two of the kids from the Jake deal should be up and getting minutes, plus POJ will stay, St. Ivanen as well and either give Poulin the chance to skate for more than a few games or just let him go. Bring up the kids even if they aren’t highly regarded prospects they can be contributors and play above expectation playing alongside guys like Sid, Malkin, Letang, Karlsson, even Rust/Rakell.
Trade Reilly Smith, too. He was a passenger most of the year.
Between him and Jarry, that’s $10 million to keep Ned and find two 3rd line wingers.
Can’t do anything about Malkin and Karlsson. And it’s not as if they’re no longer capable NHL players; they’re just on the inevitable decline Father Time dishes out even to superstars.
Thing is, they DO need to tear it all down. They needed to tear it all down two summers ago, except for the fanboys howling that they Couldn’t Waste Sid’s Last Years. And they needed to tear it down last summer, except for the fanboys howling that they Couldn’t Waste Sid’s Last Years. And even unloading Guentzel, they were halfhearted about it: with so many teams screaming for goaltending, I have a hard time imagining that they couldn’t have gotten good returns for either Jarry or Ned or both.
Well, Sid’s Last Years have been, and are being, wasted, and it’s not getting better: it’s either scorched earth right the hell now, or they’re about to enter Year Three of being Buffalo, with no end in sight.
So. Get younger, fast. Buy out Rakell and Smith. Deal Rust while he still has value. Put a sniper on the roof to pick off Dubas if he dares to sign or trade for any player above the age of 27 at any point in the next five years. And those next five years are going to entail a fair bit of suffering, because there’s too much talent still to go on full tank mode.
The retirement was disclosed during their pre-game yesterday, so it was almost old news at game’s end. Classy move by the Isles’ fans to show their respect to him, too.