Current status fueled move to get Carter
Hextall felt former Kings star would be right upgrade for run
The day he took the gig in early February, Ron Hextall said he would “keep an eye on the future” for the rest of this season while navigating the present for his new team, with its aging nucleus and a dearth of draft picks and prospects.
The subtext was he planned to cling to the limited future assets he inherited.
But what the Penguins have done since then, climbing the East Division standings despite injuries to Evgeni Malkin and others, was what had the general manager on the phone with Jeff Carter in the wee hours of Monday morning.
“We’ve had a lot of guys step up. And we felt like they’ve done a good enough job and, essentially, the team forced us to do this,” Hextall said. “That probably isn’t the right phrase. But they made
us think long and hard about where we’re at. ... Acquiring Jeff is really a credit to the job our players have done.”
Four hours after the Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night, Hextall officially acquired Carter. The cost to get the two-time Stanley Cup winner from the Los Angeles Kings was a pair of conditional draft picks beyond 2021.
At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, Carter certainly qualifies as the “big, physical forward” Hextall a week ago said was atop the team’s shopping list. Ideally, he helps coach Mike Sullivan ice a deeper forward lineup in the playoffs. But the 36-year-old also serves as insurance in case Malkin’s absence extends into May.
Hextall on Monday expressed optimism that Malkin, out with a knee injury, will be ready to rock by the end of the regular season but was noncommittal. He added that Brandon Tanev isn’t expected back until the playoffs begin in the second week of May. Kasperi Kapanen, at least, is about 10-14 days away, he said.
And so Carter’s versatility appealed to the Penguins. A respected two-way center for much of his career, the righty more often has skated on the wing in 2021.
“Jeff offers a lot. He’s got speed. He’s a playoff-proven player,” Hextall said, adding, “He can play special teams. At 5-on-5, he can play center or the wing. So he just brings a lot to the table for us. We felt like it was enough of an upgrade.”
After a bunch of early-career battles against the Penguins while with Philadelphia and a brief stop in Columbus, Carter headed to Los Angeles in 2011-12. He helped the Kings win the Cup that first year and stuck around for a decade.
In 580 regular season games with the Kings, the Ontario native had 194 goals and 383 points. He added 26 goals and 53 points in 73 postseason games.
“One of Jeff’s top attributes has always been his shot,” Hextall said. “He’s got a very good shot. He’s got a very good release. [Scoring] in the playoffs is not an easy thing to do. Some of the fancy players go by the wayside and you’ve got to put pucks on net and you’ve got to go there. Jeff does an extremely good job at that.”
President of hockey operations Brian Burke said in an interview with Sportsnet that Hextall had first reached out to the Kings about Carter a few weeks ago.
Carter had previously indicated that he wanted to finish his career in Los Angeles, where he, his wife and two young children have planted roots. But Hextall, who also won the Cup with the Kings in 2012, said Carter was pumped to head to Pittsburgh. The forward is expected to join the team prior to Tuesday’s practice.
“There was a time when Jeff wanted to finish in L.A. … But I can tell you I talked to him [Monday morning], probably around 1:30 our time, and he was in a terrific mood,” he said. “His exact words to me, I think the quote was, ‘I’m allin.’”
While Carter should help at least a little bit, Hextall resisted the urge to splash more chips into the pot before his first trade deadline as the GM here.
The three other East Division teams in playoff position made more seismic moves. The New York Islanders on April 7 scored Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac. Then on Monday, the Boston Bruins acquired former MVP Taylor Hall and the Washington Capitals grabbed Anthony Mantha in the day’s biggest blockbuster.
But Hextall’s first trade in Pittsburgh was his only before the 3 p.m. deadline. After the Cartertrade, Hextall “dabbled” in discussions with other teams, some of which inquired about current Penguins regulars. But he chose to stand pat.
In addition to not wanting to give up additional future assets, the patient general manager explained that he didn’t want to disrupt the chemistry of a Penguins team that is 16-51 with a plus-33 goal differential since the start of March.
“We talked long and hard about that,” Hextall said. “I know Jeff Carter pretty well and I know Jeff is the sort of guy that’s just going to come into the room and just wants to go out and play hockey and be a good guy and a good teammate.”
One of the conditional picks used to acquire Carter is a 2022 third-rounder that reportedly becomes a secondrounder if the Penguins make it to the Stanley Cup final this season with Carter suiting up for at least 50% of their games.
The other is a 2023 fourthround pick tied to Carter’s playing time in 2021-22. He is under contract through next season with a salary cap hit of $2.6 million.
The Kings agreed to retain the other half of his cap hit to complete the trade.
To make room on the roster for Carter, the Penguins reassigned Juuso Riikola to the taxi squad and Drew O’Connor to their American Hockey League affiliate.
“If we were going to add a player and take assets away, we were going to add a player that we felt like could make an impact,” their general manager said. “The fact that Jeff’s cap number … is low really helped us, and obviously we got a pretty good player for a year and change here. So the deal made sense for us.”