Penguins’ Jeff Carter earns respect of teammates, enjoying complementary role

Jeff Carter’s career resume is sterling enough that he might be the face of some playoff franchises: 17 seasons, 1,100-plus games, 800-plus points and two Stanley Cups.

But for the Pittsburgh Penguins, as Carter put it on the eve of this postseason, he is “just another piece” of the leadership core.

When Carter arrived via an April 2021 trade, he joined three others who’ve by now played 16-plus seasons, played 900-plus games, tallied 650-plus points — and one-upped Carter by claiming three Stanley Cups.

“This is their team,” Carter said, referring to the Penguins triumvirate of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. “They have been around for a long time and had a lot of success here, and I try to help out where I can. Guys like (veteran forward Brian Boyle) and myself, we been through it — as have Sid and ‘Geno’ and ‘Tanger,’ obviously — so anywhere we can help, can provide some leadership, whatever it may be, good or bad, we try to help.”

Carter does not have a letter sewed to his jersey like Crosby (captain), Malkin and Letang (assistant captains) have, and at age 37 he is playing a more complementary than starring third-line center role. But that doesn’t mean his stature as a possible future Hall of Famer doesn’t carry weight in the Penguins dressing room.

“He’s been amazing,” winger Jake Guentzel said of Carter’s 13-month tenure with the Penguins. “He’s been through a lot. The guy’s been around the league a long time. He came in just right away and fit into our locker room like nothing, so he has been huge to have on our team. And he plays a lot of big minutes for us.”

That’s 1,343 minutes this past regular season to be precise. Only Crosby and Guentzel played more among Penguins forwards. Those two, Bryan Rust and Malkin are the only forwards who averaged more minutes per game. Carter appeared in 76 of the Penguins’ 82 games during the regular season.

He finished fifth on the team in points (45) and goals (19) and second among forwards in hits (99) and faceoff wins (648).

“He’s a great leader in the locker room,” goalie Casey DeSmith said. “Especially lately, I think he’s really been really keeping us on track. He always has a couple of wise words in between periods. He’s obviously a quiet guy, keeps to himself but great teammate, great guy, really encouraging to everyone around him and he always has some valuable things to say in the locker room as well.”

Perhaps never moreso than this time of year. Carter has taken part in 23 NHL postseason series. He entered these playoffs with 43 goals and 79 points in 126 postseason games.

During last season’s first-round series loss to the New York Islanders, Carter had twice as many goals (four in six games) as anyone else on the team. Carter entered this postseason ranked seventh among active NHL centers in career playoff goals with 43.

Who are first and second on that list? Crosby and Malkin.

Just another example of how, only in Pittsburgh and on this team, would a player with Carter’s list of accomplishments seem overshadowed.

Coach Mike Sullivan, though, notes that even Crosby, Malkin and Letang look up to Carter.

“He, without a doubt, has the respect of all of the players in our room,” Sullivan said. “(Even) the guys that are as accomplished as he is, and the other guys.

“I just think he’s another voice of leadership in our dressing room that can offer a certain perspective because of his accomplishments and the successes that he’s had over the course of his career. ‘Carts’ is an important leader for us. He is an important voice in the locker room for us, and my experience of coaching him and the time that we have been together here, he’s done a really good job just enhancing the leadership group that we have here already that we feel fortunate that we have.”

Keep up with the Pittsburgh Penguins all season long.

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at cadamski@triblive.com or via Twitter .