Burnside: Jeff Carter unexpectedly finds a new hockey home in Pittsburgh
At the time, about 10 months ago to be exact, Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ron Hextall didn’t feel like the deal would come together at all.
Jeff Carter was a Los Angeles King, pure and simple. The skilled, veteran forward had helped raise the Kings to the pinnacle of the hockey world and he’d ridden out the slow descent into rebuild and he’d made it clear that he wasn’t interested in trading in his Kings jersey for any other team’s colors.
He was perfectly happy in Hermosa Beach.
The same handful of teams had been circling around the rebuilding Kings and Carter for the past few seasons but each trade deadline came and went with those teams quietly but firmly rebuffed. Carter’s trade protection had disappeared with his trade from Columbus to Los Angeles back in 2012 but the implication was clear that retirement would be a more palatable option for Carter than either leaving his young family while playing in another city or uprooting them and moving them midseason.
“Every trade deadline there was a measure of anxiety, because he wasn’t protected,” longtime agent Rick Curran said. “The last couple of years it became even more intensified.”
Kings GM Rob Blake was tasked with walking the fine line between respecting Carter’s wishes not to be moved and making sure he was doing right by the Kings’ future in the event there was a deal too good to pass up.
“We understood that,” Curran said. “Rob was terrific.”
And so Carter remained a King and it appeared that’s how the veteran winger’s career would play out.
But a couple of things happened that would change the course of Carter’s history – and by extension perhaps, the history of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
First, Hextall has known Carter for literally years dating back to their shared time in Philadelphia where Hextall was just beginning his post-playing career in management and Carter was part of a talented Flyers core selected 11th overall in the 2003 draft.
After an ill-advised trade to Columbus, Carter ended up in Los Angeles where Hextall was assistant GM on Dean Lombardi’s staff helping assemble an elite team that would win Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014.
From fuzzy faced teenager to father to Stanley Cup champion and Canadian Olympian, Hextall knew well the player and the person and felt strongly Carter would be an ideal fit for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“He turned into an absolute pro, a terrific leader and a champion,” Hextall told Daily Faceoff in a recent interview. “That journey for me has been to watch.”
“Jeff was a high priority for us,” Hextall added. “He’s like a greyhound. He’s got a perfect build for an athlete.”
Granted permission by Blake to chat with Curran, Hextall made his pitch on why Pittsburgh was a place for Carter to continue his career. And then he made it again.
“At the time I suggested to Ron the preference was for Jeff to stay in L.A.,” Curran said. “But to his credit, Ron was persistent. And at the end his persistence paid off. He was able to convince Jeff that there was a spot for him, that there was a role for him to play. That he would really, really love to have him come to Pittsburgh.”
The Carter story is a many-layered tale.
It’s about perseverance and relationships and it’s also about knowing what exactly matters at trade deadline for players and teams.
“I wasn’t surprised at the call,” Curran said when Hextall reached out after taking over for Jim Rutherford who stepped away from the Penguins organization in late January 2021.
“I know the Pittsburgh organization. I knew what it was like in Pittsburgh. Ownership always looking to win. They give a [bleep],” Curran said.
The longtime player representative often tells his younger clients: pay attention to the people around you. Whether it’s members of the coaching staff or people in the hockey operations department, you never know where your paths will cross and recross down the road.
“Those people could have a huge impact on your career,” Curran said. “It’s a lesson for everybody.”
Like Hextall, whose dogged pursuit of Carter paid off when the Penguins sent a conditional third and conditional fourth-round pick to Los Angeles for Carter last April 11.
Hextall admitted he thought it might take Carter a few days to get his life in order and square things up before joining the Penguins. But when he spoke to Carter late that evening, the first time he’d spoken one-on-one with the player through the trade process, he got a different answer.
“He said, ‘No, I’m ready to come tomorrow,'” Hextall said. “I was like, wow. And that’s when I really knew that he was all-in.”
Not only all-in but as it turns out but in for the long haul. Funny how things work out, no?
The Penguins felt Carter, who can play the wing or center, could log critical minutes on the power play and kill penalties. But the move also proved to be a great tonic for the veteran forward coming off a foot injury that had hampered him in his last full season in Los Angeles.
“He didn’t have the confidence in his skating that he wanted,” Curran said. But by the time he got to Pittsburgh Carter was fully healed. “Everything just came together,” the agent said.
Carter, now 37, had nine goals in 14 regular season games for the Penguins – more than he collected in the first 40 games of the season with the Kings. And then he continued his hot streak in the playoffs with another four goals in six playoff games as one of the team’s best players in their six-game opening round loss to the New York Islanders.
“I think the chance of winning I think it revitalized him. I really do,” Hextall said.
This season, sometimes acting as the team’s top center as the Penguins have had to deal with a numbing number of injuries to key personnel, Carter has once again fulfilled multiple rolls for the Penguins with 28 points in 44 games as the Penguins sit atop the crowded Metropolitan Division standings.
“He’s not a big personality. He doesn’t have an ego,” Hextall said. “That’s what we always look for at the deadline. There’s a lot more to it than just the on-ice stuff. He’s given us a lot.”
So good was the fit that Hextall approached Curran about an extension in the offseason and then kept up discussion on that front until they found the right moment and the right fit in dollar and term recently signing a two-year extension with a $3.125-million cap hit.
“His addition to our leadership group has really helped,” Hextall said. “It’s certainly the same here in Pittsburgh where we’re totally committed to winning.”
In some ways the reasons that Carter didn’t want to leave Los Angeles are the exact reasons why he’s chosen to prolong his stay in Pittsburgh. The Stanley Cup clock ran out on that Los Angeles team and now Carter is a key part of another team that knows that time passes all too quickly for those in the hunt.
“Leaving L.A. wasn’t easy,” Carter said during a recent chat.
And he admitted that even once he got to Pittsburgh there was still a lot of uncertainty about how he and his family were going to proceed beyond last season.
“I wasn’t really sure what the future held for me,” Carter said.
But his family which includes children aged 5 and 4 and wife Megan loved the community and were embraced by the Penguins organization.
“My family loves it here,” Carter said.
The only player that Carter knew personally was Crosby from their shared time on the Canadian Olympic team in Sochi in 2014 and in some ways that was enough. “Just the way he takes care of his teammates,” Carter said.
But having gotten to know the other veterans, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, who have been on hand for three Cup wins and a trip to the 2008 Final as well, Carter has been enthused by the team’s all-in mentality.
“You look at the team that you have here, these guys are hungry for more,” Carter said. “All they want to do is win. They want to get back to the top.
“It’s a pretty special group of guys in there, and the way the big guys set the bar,” Carter added. “It made my decision to re-sign here pretty easy. I think it’s just been seamless from Day 1.”
His new deal that kicks in next season provides him once again with some certainty over his future with a full no-move clause.
Longtime NHLer and analyst Keith Jones has as good a perspective on Carter’s career as any given his lengthy role as a broadcast analyst on Flyer games as well as providing analysis on a national basis.
He wasn’t surprised that Carter ended up leaving Los Angeles for Pittsburgh and he’s not surprised that he’s decided to prolong his career with the Penguins.
“I think he’s perfectly slotted there for this time of his career,” Jones said. “He’s a very wise person. He’s never overwhelmed by the big moment. That’s always something that’s stood out for me.
“I honestly believe that Jeff would have retired if Jeff was getting traded anywhere else,” Jones said. “They weren’t just threats. I think he was legitimately thinking about retiring (rather than leave Los Angeles). That was leverage and that’s leverage that some players have that are fortunate to get to that point in their careers.”
And if there is a sense that both Carter and the Penguins are in the same boat looking for some late-career magic, well, so be it.
If it’s possible for a team with a collection of sure-fire Hall of Famers like the Penguins possess can be under the radar, then this Penguins team is that.
“I think they’re legitimate contenders,” Jones said. “And yes, remarkably sitting in the weeds.”