It's time the Pittsburgh Penguins see Jeff Carter for what he is.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have reached a crossroads with aging center Jeff Carter. As his performance continues to decline, including a historically bad showing against the Montreal Canadiens, the Penguins continue to deploy him in high-leverage situations.

While his overall ice time has decreased, the timing and situations of his deployment remain unsuitable for his current abilities. Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan has endorsed Carter's faceoff abilities all season long and finds moments in the game to utilize what appears to be Carter's last remaining strength.

For instance, Carter began a 4v4 shift with Evgeni Malkin in the defensive zone while Malkin's linemate, Jason Zucker, remained on the bench. Carter lost that faceoff, and the Penguins spent most of that shift with the hottest goal scorer in the NHL sitting on the bench. 

Carter continues to collect ice time in strange faceoff-only shifts despite having only a slightly better faceoff percentage than the other centers on the roster. The Penguins have to stop deploying Carter as a specialist and deploy him for what he is, a replacement-level fourth-line center. One who needs to be scratched in favor of the first center to return from injury between Nick Bonino and Ryan Poehling.

It is unfortunate how quickly Carter's abilities have fallen off. However, the Penguins can't afford to continue to find ways to increase his role as his struggles continue. Icing him in favor of better players in pivotal situations is not only hurting him, but it has hurt the team.

Carter remains under contract through next season, but once the Penguins get their injured players back, he should spend the rest of this season in the press box.

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