It is late Sunday night and Bob McKenzie is dropping some heat about the Pittsburgh Penguins and Jeff Carter.

Could veteran centre Jeff Carter be on his way to PIT? LAK and PIT have had discussions on that and are believed to be working towards making that happen.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) April 12, 2021

You don’t get more piped in than Bob McKenzie so this seems like it might happen. And as I’m writing this sentence Carter has been shipped to Pittsburgh

LAK will be retaining salary on Carter and receiving a couple of conditional draft picks from PIT.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) April 12, 2021

Echoing Rob Rossi, hearing it isn't official yet. Source said 'not done yet.'
Also hearing that the picks are a third and a fourth (with conditions), but things been worked out, as colleague @Real_RobRossi says

— lisa dillman (@reallisa) April 12, 2021

Jeff Carter makes 5.2M per year and it appears the Kings will be helping with the cost. This isn’t a rental situation, but it would probably make more sense if it was. Carter is 36 and has another year left on his deal after this season. His best hockey is obviously in the rear view mirror. He just seems like a weird trade target in 2020-21. Also the multiple draft picks, while conditional, contradict the previous message about not wanting to spend futures. I’m not against spending futures. Just that Jeff Carter is not the route I would have gone with them.

However, if Carter retires after this season it sets up a unique scenario for the Penguins. They might actually gain cap space

If Carter traded to #LetsGoPens & retires after year, cap recapture would be for 1 year:#CBJ -$551K#LAKings -$3.48M#LetsGoPens $762K Benefit

If 50% retained:#CBJ -$551K#LAKings -$3.1M#LetsGoPens $381K Benefithttps://t.co/cqSkXzYamR https://t.co/x5lmWzxepP

— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) April 12, 2021

No idea how this works and honestly I don’t have much motivation to figure it out, either. I’m going to trust those who work extensively on cap related matters on it.


The big question, can Jeff Carter still play?

When I say Carter is a volume shooter, I mean it. His personal share of his on-ice shot attempts at 5v5 was 33% last year (8th in the NHL) and 33% this year (9th)

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) April 12, 2021

Well, it doesn’t look great and there is certainly risk here. What the Penguins have to be hoping for is he continues to be a volume shooter and his finishing rebounds to a more respectable rate. Carter’s shooting percentage of 6.8 is the lowest for him in 14 years. He is an 11% career shooter. His quality of teammate has been lower than his quality of competition. If the plan is to throw ZAR-Blueger-Tanev into the meat grinder it may free things up for Carter to get some easier minutes. His most common linemates this year in LA were Andreas Athanasiou and Gabriel Vilardi. The question will be who Carter gets to play with and can they put him in good spots for him to take advantage of his shooting. There aren’t many candidates in the bottom six with playnmaking ability

Carter can play center or right wing and if I had to pick between a LW/C or a RW/C I’d rather go with the RW/C combo given what the Penguins have.

We’ll have to see how Mike Sullivan wants to deploy Carter and those choices will probably make or break him as a Penguin.

****


Earlier in the day Elliotte Friedman eluded to the Penguins and Ducks talking about a trade involving Nic Deslauriers



It appears Friedman jumped the gun on things and thankfully so for the Penguins. Deslauriers is one of those big and physical forwards who don’t do anything other than being big and physical. It would be have a poor addition to the team.

Oh and the Bruins traded for Taylor Hall.

Thanks for reading!

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