The Pittsburgh Penguins are running out of options with Jeff Carter.

Kyle Dubas spent little time putting his fingerprints on this Pittsburgh Penguins roster. In his first few months as President of Hockey Ops and General Manager of the Penguins, Dubas erased several of his predecessor's problematic contracts, like Jan Rutta, Jeff Petry, and Mikael Granlund.

One problematic contract that remained was Penguins's veteran forward, Jeff Carter. Carter is in the final year of a two-year contract containing a no-movement clause, forcing the Penguins to carry the winger on their NHL roster this season.

Despite his poor performance last season, there was hope that the 38-year-old would be reinvigorated with a new role. The Penguins signed Lars Eller and Noel Acciari to handle center duties in the bottom six, relegating Carter to the fourth line as a right wing.

In fact, through six games, his role has been minimized to a point where he has the second-lowest average ice time on the team (11:08) behind only Jansen Harkins, who was waived and assigned to the AHL after four games. 

The plan was simple. Deploy Carter with defense-first linemates to cover for his deficiencies and allow him to be the triggerman on the bottom line. He has gotten a handful of scoring opportunities but has yet to capitalize on any. Six games is the longest Carter has gone without a point to open a season in his 19-year career.

The Penguins don't have many options with Carter at this point. His contract ensures that he'll stay on the NHL roster and won't be traded unless he chooses, which Carter has shown no interest in. 

Their two options are to continue deploying him as they are and hope he finds another gear or burn his roster spot and salary cap space by scratching him on a nightly basis. The former is the likely course of action for Mike Sullivan and the Penguins.

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