The Philadelphia Flyers may not be playing their best hockey right now but their season overall has been excellent.

In all of the talk about the depth of the team -- the defense, the goalie situation and all the new acquisitions -- Flyers forward Jeff Carter has been overshadowed.

Maybe it's better that way.

The Flyers signed Carter to an 11-year extension worth $58 million on Nov. 12. Carter was scheduled to become a restricted free agent on July 1. He has rewarded the Flyers with his stellar play this season and has regained his scoring touch in the second half of the season.

The season didn't start off great for Carter but he has 15 goals in his last 23 games and looks to get hot in time for another deep playoff run.

"We don’t like how last year ended," Jeff Carter said. "We have to work harder to win it all."


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If you’re following the NHL in 2010-11, you’re hearing about the stellar years that Steven Stamkos, Sidney Crosby, and Daniel Sedin are having.

Sedin leads the league with 69 points while Stamkos is the league leader in goals (39) and is second to Sedin in points (68). Crosby is second in goals (32), third in points (66).

Heck, you’ll even hear about Danny Briere on the national level. Briere, who carried the team offensively during their Stanley Cup run last spring, has tickled the twine 26 times this year, good for sixth in the NHL.

But you’re not hearing about Jeff Carter.

Carter, who signed an 11-year, $58 million contract extension in November, is quietly putting together an outstanding season.

The 26-year-old forward has 25 goals and 23 assists for 48 points in 53 games; second on the team in points behind the team leader Claude Giroux.


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Carter's extension should be beneficial for both sides.


Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren continued to take care of business with off the ice matters on Saturday when he announced that Jeff Carter agreed to terms to an 11-year, $58 million contract extension.

Given his new deal, Carter will be 36-years-old next time he's eligible to hit the free agent market.

The contract is a very reasonable deal for both sides as Carter will make his money at a reasonable cap hit of $5.27 million for the Flyers.

It breaks down to: $6 million in 2011-12, $6.25 in 2012-13, $6.5 in 2013-14, $6.75 in 2014-15, $7 million in 2015-16 and 2016-17, $6.5 in 2017-18, $5 in 2018-19, $3 in 2019-20, and $2 in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Carter has a full no-trade clause beginning in the 2012-13 season through 2014-15, and a modified NTC from 2015-16 through 2021-22.

Because of the Ilya Kovalchuk debacle that took place over the summer with the New Jersey Devils, from this point forward any long term contract will more likely spark the discussion of cap circumvention.

For those unaware of what took place in New Jersey, let me catch you a bit.

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello presented the league with a contractual agreement with Ilya Kovalchuk for 17 years, $102 million in which the NHL rejected for cap circumvention.

Like most double-digit deals, the contract was heavily front-loaded. Kovalchuk would have earned $95 million in the first 10 years of the deal, and only $7 million in the final seven years.

The contract's cap hit was only $6 million, relatively small for a player to Kovalchuk's caliber.

It didn't take a genius to know that Kovalchuk's contract with the Devils was illegal.

Now, we have another contract for more than a decade with Carter's extension with the Flyers, and considering Holmgren has been suspected of cap circumvention previously with Chris Pronger, it's safe to assume there will be some questions about Carter's deal.

Before we move forward, the NHL has approved Carter's extension. They've deemed it a legal contract with no circumvention.

However, I've had several queries from readers who believe it was a little bit of circumvention.

To understand what cap circumvention really is, you have to know the definition of circumvention. If you look in the Webster's dictionary, it defines circumvention as a verb: to go around or bypass.

It occurs when a team tries to get the better of the league's salary cap, using a loophole in the system that allows teams to sign a player for a long period of time at a low cap hit to make it easier to fit the player under the cap.

Often times, the player will see a huge drop off in salary near the end of the deal rather than a slow decrease as the player gets older. In most suspected circumstances, the player at question is either over the age of 35 or will be in their forties when the contract expires.

Players contracts that have been suspected of circumvention are Roberto Luongo, Marian Hossa and Pronger, however since the league approved those deals, they couldn't justify revoking their approval.

Kovalchuk was the NHL's guinea pig to put their foot down on a problem that if they didn't stop, would become an easy fix to get around the league's salary cap.

That brings us back to Carter's contract, and did the Flyers commit cap circumvention in re-signing the 25-year-old sniper.

The answer is no, not even close.

Let's go back to Kovalchuk's contract, the 27-year-old lethal goal scorer signed for 17 years. That's nearly two decades, and no one believed that Kovalchuk would be playing hockey at the age of 44.

Carter is only 25-years-old, and is about to enter the prime of his career. It's completely in reason to believe that he will still be playing in 11 years.

Don't believe me?

There are plenty of players still playing at or above the age of 36. For instance, Phoenix's Ray Whitney (38), Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson (37) and Alexei Kovalev (37), Boston's Mark Reechi (42), Anaheim's Teemu Selanne (40) and Jason Blake (37).

With that settled, let's look at how much Carter will make over the years. Is he making $50 of the $58 million in the first five years, or is it evenly distributed over 11 years?

Carter will see raises for the first four seasons before earning $7 million in years five and six. The drop off begins after year six when he turns 33 when the money begins to go down.

In the final two years of the deal, Carter will make $2 million. You tell me, that's pretty fair for a 36-year-old center, am I wrong?

To my final point, we all know that the Flyers wanted to work out an agreement with Carter that would be cap friendly, you could say. And, this contract is indeed friendly to the cap for Philly.

The $5.27 cap hit puts Carter in the same earning range of Andy McDonald, Martin Erat and former Flyer Simon Gagne. Not too bad for the Flyers to lock up a 40-goal scorer for relatively cheap.

While the Flyers achieved their goal, they did so fairly. They did not break any rules of the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), and did not try to get around the cap.

They did what the Devils tried to do, but in a legal, fair way. Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Lamoriello can learn a thing or two from Holmgren.

I have yet to mention that the Flyers made it known that this is still captain Mike Richards' team as Carter will make $11 million less than Richards.

In the last week, Holmgren has locked up two of the Flyers' core players for multi-year contracts. Claude Giroux was first with a three-year, $11.25 million extension on Tuesday, and Carter was next.

Holmgren has one more player to lock up before he can call it a day at the office as Ville Leino is set to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2011.

An interesting note, Holmgren was spotted by the media talking to Leino after announcing Carter's extension.

Homer's a busy man these days
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A 10-year deal likely makes Jeff Carter a Flyer for life.


When the Philadelphia Flyers signed budding superstar Claude Giroux to his three year, $11.25 million contract extension, it led many to ponder whether or not it would affect re-signing 25-year-old sniper Jeff Carter.

No worries, folks, Carter will bear wearing the orange and black for a very long time.

Two sources have told CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio that the Flyers are inching closer to signing Carter to an extension that will keep the center turned winger playing in the city of brotherly love for the next decade.

Panaccio says the deal is expected to be for 10 years, worth in the range of $60 and $63 million for a cap hit in the area of $6 to $6.3 million per season.

If the contract is signed at the numbers that are being leaked, it would give him a slightly higher cap hit than his best buddy, Mike Richards, who's 12-year pact he signed in 2007 has a $5.75 million hit.

It also will ensure he'll be playing with Richards for a major portion of their careers.

Carter, who was drafted with the 11th overall pick by Philadelphia in 2003, is set to become a restricted free agent at season's end if a deal isn't worked out by the start of the summer.

Indications point toward that not being the case as Panaccio is one of the best in the business in breaking news about player movement and personnel decisions.

Bleacher Report's Mark Ritter chewed over the idea that Giroux's deal could spell the end of the line for Carter in Philadelphia. Due to cap circumstances, he figures that someone would fall victim to the cap much like Simon Gagne did this past offseason.

Since Danny Briere and Scott Hartnell each have some sort of no-movement clauses in their contract, and the dollar figures each make, it only made sense that Carter would be the odd man out.

Ritter said that at some point in the season or over the summer, Carter will be traded.

For anyone who is familiar with general manager Paul Holmgren's thought process, they would know that he has no plans to trade the London, Ont. native.

In fact, during this past summer, Holmgren religiously denied rumors that the Flyers were listening to trade offers involving Carter.

The Flyers still view Carter as a franchise player they drafted seven years ago, and want to get him locked up as soon as possible. It's the Flyers mission to make sure he doesn't reach free agent status.

Carter has had a very successful career in his six NHL seasons, recording 153 goals and 291 points while possessing a career +27 rating in 397 regular season games. To add to his already impressive resume, Carter has 19 points in 41 career playoff games.

This year, Carter is tied for the team lead in points with none other than Giroux with 14 points. He has eight goals and six assists in 16 games.

Those numbers don't lie, and the fact that he has yet to enter the stage of his career where players usually hit their prime tells you that he is only going to get better.

Holmgren has realized the importance of building around a core of young players, and he's identified Carter as part of his core.

Look at the some of the best teams in the league the last couple years, they built around a core of a few players.

For example, in Pittsburgh, it's been Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal. In Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

The Flyers hope Carter, Richards and Giroux can provide the same kind of excitement for Philadelphia as Crosby, Malkin and Staal and Datsyuk and Zetterberg have done for Pittsburgh and Detroit.

That is, win a Stanley Cup.



UPDATE: Check our "Breaking News" section for an update on this story! Then bookmark the page and make sure to visit it often as we update it with all the goings-on around Philly sports!

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Carter will be a Flyer for years to come, just give it time.


Tim Panaccio of the CSNPhilly.com reported Wednesday that talks between the Flyers and center Jeff Carter have taken an "upswing after weeks of slow but determined negotiations."

The Flyers want to re-sign Carter in-season before he becomes a restricted free agent on July 1, something the organization usually does with key players.

For example, general manager Paul Holmgren signed captain Mike Richards to his 12-year, $69 million deal during the 2007 season. Carter, who was the 11th overall pick in 2003 by the Flyers, will be seeking his third pro contract after his three-year, $15 million pact expires after this season.

On his current deal, Carter is lined up to make $5 million in 2010-11.

Any extension will likely have Carter earning anywhere in the range of $5-6 million. Carter will almost certainly ask for a raise from his current deal based on his offensive production in the last few years.

Over the past three seasons, the 25-year-old sniper has accumulated 108 goals and 198 points in 238 games with the Flyers. In 2008-09, the first year of his extension, Carter potted 46 goals and finished second behind Alex Ovechkin for the league lead in goals.

It's no secret that Holmgren wants Carter to don the Orange and Black for a very long time, but during the offseason, rumblings around the NHL had the Flyers open to trading Carter.

Holmgren, however, continually denied them.

Now, Homer told Panaccio that "sooner or later it’s going to get done." Folks, Carter is going to be a Flyer beyond this season, whether you like it or not.

What does this mean for the best Flyer, Claude Giroux, who is also a restricted free agent this coming summer?

Don't worry, the Flyers plan on inking him to a juicy extension.

When asked about the cap situation around re-signing both, Holmgren simply replied: "We have space."
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