What’s more, the Flyers bypassed some more highly publicized prospects who were still on the board when the 11th pick (the first of two Flyers first round selections) came up. Fairly or unfairly, Carter’s progress will now be judged against that of Zach Parise and Dustin Brown, whom the Flyers elected not to select. Parise, in particular, will make for heated cannon fodder, as he ended up with the very team the Flyers and the entire NHL measures themselves against: the Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils.
While Philadelphia fans are known to put enormous pressure on their sports teams and cut rookies no more slack from booing than the veterans, Carter’s even keel approach should serve him well. If the pressure phases him at all, he doesn’t let on. “I’m just happy to be joining a great organization,” he said on draft day.
Flyers assistant coach Craig Hartsburg coached Carter his first year with the Soo. Hartsburg’s input helped the Flyers draft contingent, led by general manager Bob Clarke and assistant general manager Paul Holmgren (who handles most issues related to drafting and player development), make up their minds that Carter was the way to go.
Said Hartsburg, “He has the assets of a player that will go places. He’s an all-around good player and a mature young man with tremendous character.”
Carter is pleased that he’ll be reunited with Hartsburg at some point. “I started following [the Flyers] a bit this year, because Craig Hartsburg is now an assistant there. I started watching a few of the games, and I’d see him on TV.”
Like most Canadians, hockey is in the London, Ontario native Carter’s blood. “My Dad played one year in the OHL, for Oshawa,” he recalls. “Then, he moved on, and didn’t play much after that.”
The younger Carter started playing very young. By the age of three, he was on skates and beginning to learn the rudiments of the game from his father. As he advanced, he played midget hockey in London and junior B in Strathroy before moving up to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League.
The Greyhounds struggled for much of the 2002-2003 season and Carter got off to a slow start. He also struggled in the post season as well, putting up just a pair assists and a -5 rating in four playoff tilts. Nevertheless, Carter impressed scouts and his coaches by the way he continually worked hard all season at both ends of the ice. He finished with a team high 35 goals and 71 points in just 61 regular season games.
“It was definitely a tough year,” says Carter. “It was something you had to battle through. I think everybody on the team kind of grew as a person and a player, so I think it is going to help out in the long run.”
Clarke, who always tempers his praise for young players, says that he is impressed by Carter’s combination of size, speed and skill. While the Flyers looked at three different centers for the eleventh spot in the draft, they chose Carter because “he can really skate for a guy his size and we think he can be a very solid National Hockey League center for us.”
Like all young players, there are questions about how well Carter’s frame will fill out and whether his game will translate from junior to professional success. Thus, the offseason goals Carter set for himself are “to put some size on in the summer. Just keep working on foot speed, and getting quicker.”
Despite his modesty and soft-spoken manner, Carter is a confident young man who has his sights set high. Asked to describe his assets as a player, he replied, “I think I’m an offensive forward. I can put the puck in the net. I use my size to drive wide and [also] work down low and battle for pucks.”
In a nod to the organization that just drafted him, Carter said that he patterns his game after that of Flyers captain Keith Primeau, as well as rising Boston Bruins’ superstar Joe Thornton because “they are big centermen who can put the puck in the net. I think they’re just good all-around players.”
While Carter is not an especially aggressive player and, unlike Primeau and Thornton, is unlikely to regularly hit triple digit penalty minutes each season, the player is not afraid to get his nose dirty, according to both Hartsburg and Holmgren.
“He doesn’t back down from the physical play,” said Hartsburg. “He competes every game.”
