Penguins GM Ron Hextall Defends Jeff Carter
Jeff Carter has had an awful season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but Ron Hextall doesn't think that.
Jeff Carter has taken the brunt of a lot of criticism from the Pittsburgh Penguins fan base, and much of it has been warranted.
As the Penguins third line center this season, Carter has scored eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points in 54 games.
For the sake of comparison, Carter scored nine goals in his first 14 games after being traded out of Los Angeles.
Tack on 45 points (19G-26A) last year and it was looking like Carter could close his career out in style as a decent enough depth option for the Penguins.
That was until his production fell off of a cliff this year; in his last 18 games, Carter has only been able to record one goal.
Carter has been flanked by Brock McGinn and Kasperi Kapanen for a good chunk of the season, and they’re having their own issues, but Carter has caught a ton of heat since being protected in the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft.
When general manager Hextall acquired Carter, he knew what he could bring to the Penguins; and to be fair, Carter initially brought that.
The well has gone dry in 2022-23 and he’s becoming unplayable, but Hextall went to bat for Carter.
When asked about Carter’s lack of production this season, Hextall spoke for nearly a full minute about the bottom six, waiving Kasperi Kapanen, AHL players, and the salary cap situation before even mentioning Carter by name.
“Well, I think you look at our bottom six, a lot of people have alluded to it. For some reason, it hasn't quite fit. Pieces haven't fit. Part of the Kappy thing, we're not blaming Kappy by any stretch of the imagination, but I think the pieces just haven't fit, and we're trying to find pieces that fit. So the question earlier, whether it's a Nylander or a Puustinen at some point that comes up and gives it another look - we just try to give the coaches the options that we can give them. But we're in a tight cap situation, which we're trying to rectify a little bit here. But when you're up against it, there's only so many things you can do. But you know, players get hurt. One guy goes on LTIR, and it changes. So unfortunately, it's hard to plan for it. And you certainly don't want it to happen, but it does happen. And you just need to have the pieces down below to come up and fill in. But like I said, maybe one of those guys at some point is a piece that comes up and helps the bottom six.”
In the closing 10 seconds of Hextall’s presser, he finally touched on Carter and his season.
“I think Jeff has done some good things," Hextall said. "I think at times he's played well. And I think I said it last time, I think there's times where he can play better than he's played. But he's a big faceoff guy for us, he's a penalty killer for us, and he fills a role.”
No one is expecting Hextall to outright criticize Carter for his performance this season, the fans have done plenty of that, but avoiding the question for as long as he did just to come back with that is less than ideal for the Penguins.
Carter also hasn't played well since the first handful of games of the season; again, one point in 18 games.
Hextall is right, the bottom six is bad right now, but he hasn't done anything to try and fix it.
The last move Hextall made in an attempt to bolster the lineup rather than fill in for injury was trading for Jeff Petry.
The NHL trade deadline is under a week away, don't expect Carter to go anywhere, but if Hextall is so worried about the bottom six, he needs to do more than waive someone he should have never re-signed.
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