Jeff Carter Announces Retirement
18/04/2024 04:33
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. He 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.
More to come…
