Penguins acquire forward Jeff Carter from Kings
The Penguins appear to have found some help for their bottom-six forwards in a face that is familiar to general manager Ron Hextall.
Late Sunday night, the team agreed to a trade with the Los Angeles Kings that will net forward Jeff Carter. While terms of the deal were agreed upon before midnight, the transaction was not formally processed by the NHL until early Monday morning then was announced at approximately 1:40 a.m.
Carter, 36, is in the 10th year of an 11-year contract he signed in 2010 as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. His contract carries a salary cap hit of $5,272,727. The Kings will retain 50% of his salary cap hit (approximately $2,636,364).
The Penguins sent two conditional draft picks to the Kings in exchange, a third-round pick in 2022 and a fourth-round pick in 2023.
According to the Kings’ Web site, the 2022 pick can become a second-rounder if the Penguins reach the Stanley Cup final this season and Carter plays in 50 percent of the Penguins’ games.
The 2023 pick can become a third-rounder if Carter plays in at least 50 games for the Penguins during the 2021-22 season.
According to Puckpedia, the Penguins now have $9,147,764 salary cap space thanks to forwards Evgeni Malkin ($9.5 million) and Brandon Tanev ($3.5 million) being on long-term injured reserve, a designation that allows teams to exceed the NHL’s salary cap limit of $81.5 million.
Should Malkin or Tanev be activated from long-term injured reserve, a player on the NHL roster would need to be assigned to the taxi squad in order for the Penguins to remain compliant with the salary cap. Defenseman Jusso Riikola ($1.15 million) would appear to be a leading candidate for that given that he cleared waivers on Sunday.
This is the third time Hextall had a hand in acquiring Carter. First, as the Flyers’ director of player personnel, Hextall was part of the management team that selected Carter with the 11th overall pick in the 2003 draft.
Then in February of 2012, as assistant general manager of the Kings, Hextall was involved in a transaction that brought Carter to Los Angeles from the Columbus Blue Jackets. A handful of months later, Carter scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Kings as the franchise won its first championship.
Carter also helped the Kings win their second title in 2014.
A two-time All-Star, the right-handed Carter has played in 40 games this season and has 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) while averaging 16:27 of ice time. At 36, he’s not quite the same player who has reached the 20-goal barrier 11 times in his career. In fact, he hasn’t reached that mark since 2016-07 when he scored 36.
But the Penguins likely don’t expect Carter to be that player for them and are hoping he can boost a group of bottom-six forwards that has been stretched thin by injuries throughout the forward ranks. At 6-foot-3, 219 pounds, he would be one of the biggest players on the team. Capable of playing center, he has primarily played right wing this season while also contributing as a penalty killer, averaging 1:01 of short-handed ice time per game.
Carter, along with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, helped Canada claim gold in the 2014 Olympics.
The NHL’s trade deadline is at 3 p.m. Monday.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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