You can now officially ignore Jeff Carter trade rumors for the foreseeable future: Bob McKenzie of TSN reported Saturday afternoon that goal-scoring forward and the Philadelphia Flyers have agreed to an 11-year, $58-million contract extension. Carter was set to become a restricted free agent next summer.
It's a cap hit of $5.27 million annually, which puts him behind forwards Danny Briere ($6.5 million, signed through 2015) and Mike Richards ($5.75 million, signed through 2020) and defenseman Kimmo Timonen ($6.33 million, signed through 2014). Numbers via Cap Geek.
While it's the first long-term contract signed post-Ilya Kovalchuk arbitration and CBA amendment, it doesn't push the boundaries of cap compliance like the Devils' deal (and others) did: Carter will be 37 years old at the end of this contract.
Carter has 153 goals in 397 NHL games. His 79 goals in the last two seasons put him among the elite snipers in the game. Yet when it comes to this contract, we get the feeling that the only people that will be more upset today than fans from other NHL cities who coveted his game are going to be Flyers fans who see an incomplete player given an 11-year commitment. He's also a player whose points-per-game average goes from 0.73 in the regular season to 0.46 in the postseason -- another common complaint by the Orange and Black faithful about Carter.
We'll update with any comments from Carter or GM Paul Holmgren. Meanwhile, we'd love to hear the thoughts of Flyers fans (and those fans who fancied Jeff Carter on their team) in the comments section: Pass or Fail on this mammoth contract?
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