Good luck to Carter the person in retirement. He certainly earned all his accolades. The team clearly loves him, and TBH he has been pretty professional overall.
But its a bit disturbing how he came to represent so many things wrong with the Pens over the past few years. Obviously he should've been benched alot of the last 2 years, but Sullivan loves his vets.Then there was the extension, another galaxy brain move by a GM that was in love with him. Then the mishandling of the expansion draft. That one really rankles me the most. Everyone knows the NHL is an old boys club. If Carter told Seattle "dont take me", they would've passed over him. Losing Tanev and McCann over that, when lack of scoring depth has killed us for years since then, hurts alot.
I feel the same way I did when John Leclair retired. Should have never been a Penguin and negatively contributed to the team overall. I don’t care what he accomplished before he got here. Good riddance.
He wasnt quite that useless in my eyes. When he first came in the trade and reeled off alot of goals in the spring of 2021, I thought we had hit paydirt. He didnt keep that level up obviously, but I thought he was good in 2021 against the Isles and alright in 22 against the Rags.
I was randomly wondering the other day: if the Pens had moved to trade for him in 2019 or or so, and seen the same kind of immediate response they got in 2021, if he might've still had the juice to be a top six winger. His numbers in LA sucked at that time. But he got an immediate shot in the arm after the trade. I wonder if that was a 33 year old carter, rather than a 36 year old, if he could've ridden shotgun with 71 or something.