Confirmed Signing with Link: [NSH] Matt Carle (1 year, $700K)

[HowSweeeedeItIs]

Low risk, low reward. He might work as a 6/7. If he doesn't Nashville will just send him down.

 

[tjs*]

Appreciate your sympathy, but if Matt Carle as our sixth defenseman is going to break what is probably the best defensive unit in the NHL, then there's something else going on.

He very well could. The Carle-Sustr pairing made Lightning fans wince whenever they went onto the ice. I'm still not big on Sustr but he wasn't nearly as awful once he was separated from Carle.

Nothing against him personally - I wish him the best and hope he can revitalize his career. But by the end I was so disgusted with him that I wanted Vinik to offer him an extra million or two if after his retirement he would agree never to put on a blue shirt again. I not only wanted him gone, I wanted him to never again wear anything that could even be mistaken for a Lightning jersey.

 

[HFBS]

One year at the minimum. My, how the crappy have fallen.

 

[izzy]

He very well could. The Carle-Sustr pairing made Lightning fans wince whenever they went onto the ice. I'm still not big on Sustr but he wasn't nearly as awful once he was separated from Carle.

Nothing against him personally - I wish him the best and hope he can revitalize his career. But by the end I was so disgusted with him that I wanted Vinik to offer him an extra million or two if after his retirement he would agree never to put on a blue shirt again. I not only wanted him gone, I wanted him to never again wear anything that could even be mistaken for a Lightning jersey.

That's a tad extreme

 

[MrClutch86]

Absolute trash but at least there's no financial risk for Nashville.

 

[tjs*]

That's a tad extreme

You didn't sit through all those games. He was downright horrendous.

 

[triggrman]

You didn't sit through all those games. He was downright horrendous.

Why was he playing 20+ minutes towards the end of the season

 

[Legionnaire11]

Why was he playing 20+ minutes towards the end of the season

Stralman injury... Carle was undoubtedly the worst Tampa defenseman the last two seasons, Andy Delmore wasn't even as consistently terrible as Carle has been.

 

[Ajaton Azer]

Very cheap deal for dependable defensive man Matt Carle. He was earning 5750000 dollars while ago playing very good defense! Certainly having Tampa Bay Lightning pay some after buying out makes it easier to sign at low cost for contending team.

 

[Samuel Culper III]

I have a feeling that when his every move isn't being judged in the context of his contract, and he's only being asked to play ~12 minutes a night, (and can simply be sent down and his entire cap hit vanishes) he'll do just fine as a bottom pairing guy in Nashville.

 

[DFC]

I have a feeling that when his every move isn't being judged in the context of his contract, and he's only being asked to play ~12 minutes a night, (and can simply be sent down and his entire cap hit vanishes) he'll do just fine as a bottom pairing guy in Nashville.

Maybe, but he'll have to improve. He spent a chunk of the season playing 8-10 minutes per night and being healthy scratched, and it wasn't pretty. He wasn't an NHL caliber defenseman last year. He has stretches where he's still "not terrible," but those are few and far between, and sadly getting more rare every season.