The Penguins seem to have found help for their bottom six forwards in a face known to Ron Hextall, general manager.
Late Sunday night, the team agreed to make a deal with the Los Angeles Kings that Jeff Carter will direct. While the deal was agreed before midnight, the deal was only formally processed by the NHL on Monday morning and then announced at about 1:40 p.m.
Carter, 36, is in the 10th year of an 11-year contract he signed in 2010 as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. His contract has a salary cap of $ 5,272,727. The Kings retain 50% of its salary tax (approximately $ 2,636,364).
The Penguins in turn sent two conditional draws to the Kings, a third-round pick in 2022 and a fourth-round pick in 2023. The condition of one or another team was not disclosed.
According to Puckpedia, the Penguins now have a $ 9,147,764 salary cap, thanks to forwards Evgeni Malkin ($ 9.5 million) and Brandon Tanev ($ 3.5 million) who are long-term injured reserves, a name that allows teams to close the NHL’s salary cap of $ 81.5. million.
If Malkin or Tanev are activated from a long-term injured reserve, a player in the NHL roster must be assigned to the taxi team to keep the Penguins on the salary cap. Defender Jusso Riikola ($ 1.15 million) appears to be a leading candidate for rejecting the waiver on Sunday.
This is the second time that Hextall has helped organize a trade in which Carter was involved. In February 2012, as assistant general manager of the Kings, Hextall was involved in a deal that brought Carter to Los Angeles with the Columbus Blue Jackets. A handful of months later, Carter scored the Stanley Cup goal for the Kings when the franchise won its first championship.
Carter also helped the Kings win their second title in 2014.
Right-handed Carter, a two-time All-Star, has played in 40 games this season and has 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) while scoring 16:27 ice time. At 36, he is not quite the same player who has reached the 20-goal barrier 11 times already. In fact, he has not reached that point since 2016-07 when he scored 36.
But the Penguins probably do not expect Carter to be that player for them and hope he can raise a group of top six forwards who have been stretched by injuries throughout the top ranks. At 6-foot-3, £ 219, he would be one of the biggest players in the team. Able to play center, he has mainly played right wing this season, while also contributing as a penalty killer, with an average time of 1:01 short ice time per game.
Carter, along with Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, helped Canada claim gold at the 2014 Olympics.
The NHL’s deadline is Monday at 3 p.m.
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Seth Rorabaugh is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Seth by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .