Former Flyers star Jeff Carter retires with Pittsburgh Penguins after 19 seasons

As the Flyers slowly continue to build a team that they hope can become a year-in and year-out contender, one of the key figures from their last such team is headed out the door.

On Wednesday night, former Flyers sniper Jeff Carter played his 1,321st and final NHL game — and fittingly scored a goal — before announcing his retirement with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Carter, 39, spent the first six years of his accomplished 19-year career in Philadelphia, after the Flyers drafted him 11th overall from the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 2003. In 461 career games as a Flyer, Carter tallied 181 goals and 162 assists for 343 points.

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After helping the AHL’s Phantoms win a Calder Cup in 2005, Carter moved on to the NHL and didn’t skip a beat, scoring 23 goals as a rookie. From there, he established himself as one of the league’s top goal scorers, racking up 144 goals over a four-season span from 2007-08 to 2010-11. During that stretch he led the Flyers in goals in three straight seasons, scoring at least 30 each time, including a career-best 46 in 2008-09. Carter scored the fifth-most goals in the NHL behind only Alexander Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jarome Iginla, and Dany Heatley in that span.

The Flyers made the playoffs in five of Carter’s six seasons with the Orange and Black and reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2010. Carter ranks 18th in goals, 27th in points, 10th in game-winning goals, and ninth in shorthanded goals in Flyers history. A big body at 6-foot-3, and 219 pounds, he also was a responsible 200-foot player capable of playing center or wing.

But after a disappointing 2010-11 season, which ended in a four-game sweep by Boston in the second round, the Flyers elected to completely blow things up by shockingly dealing Carter and captain Mike Richards in separate deals on June 23, 2011. Carter was shipped to Columbus for Jake Voracek, a 2011 first-round pick (which turned into Sean Couturier), and a 2011 third-round pick (Nick Cousins). The forward was not happy to be traded and told the Columbus Dispatch at the time that he felt “anger and betrayal and all of the emotions that go along with being traded.”

Carter only lasted half a season in Columbus before he was traded to Los Angeles and reunited with Richards. There, he won a Stanley Cup in his first season with the team, tying for the playoff lead with eight goals. Carter, who excelled in all three phases (even strength, power play, and penalty kill), won another ring in 2014 with the Kings.

The London, Ontario, native has slowed down in recent years and has accepted a bottom-six role with the Penguins since he teamed up with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin in 2021. Carter’s goal last night, assisted by Crosby, was just his 11th tally and 15th point of the season in 72 games. The New York Islanders also made a nice gesture to Carter, naming him the game’s third star before each player went over and shook Carter’s hand.

A two-time All-Star, he retires with 442 goals (71st all-time) and 851 career points. Carter, who developed a reputation as a clutch performer with the Kings, has 92 career game-winning goals, the 16th most in NHL history. He also won World Junior gold with Canada in 2005 and Olympic gold in 2014. Carter said he plans to remain in Pittsburgh and is excited to focus on his family in retirement.

“I’m going to be a dad. You miss a lot being a hockey player. You’re in and out in a way,” Carter, a husband and father of two, said Wednesday. “My family sacrificed a lot for me to live out my dream. I’m going to be home and be a dad, and then figure it out from there.”

While the Flyers have had several great players, Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, and Voracek come to mind, the organization hasn’t really had a sniper of Carter’s ilk since his departure in 2011.

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