Hextall’s First Trade – Jeff Carter

Early this morning the NHL announced that Ron Hextall executed his first trade as the General Manager (GM) of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sending 2 conditional draft picks (a 3rd round pick in 2022 draft and a 4th round pick in 2023) to the Los Angeles Kings Hextall acquired Center/Right Wing Jeff Carter for the Penguins.

Hextall was Director of Player Personnel of the Philadelphia Flyers when our cross-State rivals drafted the 6’-3”, 220lb Forward with the 11th overall pick of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. In 2012, Hextall was Assistant GM of the Kings when they traded with the Columbus Blue Jackets to obtain Carter’s services. Now, Hextall wheels and deals to bring Carter to the ‘burgh.

(In another interesting connection and side note; when the Kings acquired Carter, they sent Defenseman Jack Johnson to the Jackets as part of the deal.)

A quick look at Carter’s last 3 seasons normalized to an 82 Game Average (82G Avg) and his number per 60 minutes of ice time (/60).

Is Carter the big tough Forward that many said our physically frail flightless fowl would fish for? At 6’-3”, 230 lbs, Carter isn’t exactly a shrinking violet but is there a real pugilist Brian Burke is looking to bring to the fight?

How does Carter compare to what our Penguins already have?

Carter’s 0.75 G/60 over the last 3 seasons is better than what Mark Jankowski has managed (0.58) and Frederick Gaudreau. His 1.56 Pts/60 is comparable to Jason Zucker’s 1.57, equal to Colton Sceviour’s 1.56, and better than Evan Rodrigues’ 1.54, Zach Aston-Reese’s 1.46, and Gaudreau’s 1.35. However, his 3.58 Hits/60 is extremely low and would be near the bottom of our Black-and-Gold, outside of Gaudreau and Rodrigues, only legitimate Top 6 Penguins’ Forwards hit less than Carter.

There are those suggesting that the acquisition of Carter may mean that Kasperi Kapanen may not be ready for some time to come.

Finally, from a financial point of view, Carter has one more season left on his current Contract. Carter carries a $5,272,727 Cap hit but Los Angeles is retaining half of that. Also, according to Capfriendly Carter is the opposite of Mike Matheson and more like Kapanen. His contract was front loaded. Although he carries a $5+ million Cap hit, he will only get $2 million in real money next season and I guess the Penguins only need to pay $1 million of that.

Odds and Sods

With Evgeni Malkin and Brandon Tanev on Long Term Injured Reserve, the Penguins will have had around $9 million in Cap space before the trade. Since LA is picking up half of Carter’s salary, they should still have $6+ million in space. Is there another deal in the works? I sure hope there is no Deryck Bressard deals in the works. We will know this afternoon.