The Penguins' success prompted the acquisition of Jeff Carter

Los Angeles Kings general manager Rob Blake probably didn’t need to do much to convince Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Ron Hextall to swing a trade for veteran forward Jeff Carter in the wee hours of Monday morning.

After all, Hextall, a former Kings executive, has a strong history with Carter.

If anything, the push to add Carter, or any player of his ilk, came internally.

From the Penguins.

On the ice.

Having forged through a storm of injuries, particularly among their forward ranks in recent weeks, Hextall’s players “forced” him to acquire a player as accomplished Carter in order to boost their chances of making a run at the Stanley Cup.

So, a few hours after the Penguins defeated the New Jersey Devils, 5-2, at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Sunday, Hextall completed a deal that netted Carter as the clock turned to Monday.

“Essentially the team … made us think long and hard about where we’re at and what area we can try to get better to give us a better chance to, first of all, make the playoffs, and then have success in the playoffs,” Hextall said via video conference. “Acquiring Jeff is really a credit to the job that our players have done.”

The Penguins have gone 16-5-1 since the start of March, equating to 33 points, the second-best total in the NHL over that span. That success has come without the services of injured top-nine forwards such as Evgeni Malkin, Kasperi Kapanen and Brandon Tanev.

A two-time All-Star, the 36-year-old Carter no longer is the same player who once scored 46 goals. He has not reached the 20-goal mark since the 2016-17 season. This season, he has a mundane 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in 40 games with a poor Kings team.

But the two-time Stanley Cup champion still can contribute in Hextall’s eyes.

“Jeff offers a lot,” Hextall said. “First of all, in his game, he’s got speed. He’s a playoff-proven player. He’s got a lot of versatility. He can play special teams. (At) five-on-five (play), he can play center, he can play the wing. So he just brings a lot to the table for us. We felt like it was enough of an upgrade.”

In the 10th year of an 11-year contract he signed as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010, Carter (6-foot-3, 213 pounds) has a salary cap hit of $5,272,727, but the Kings have retained half of that (approximately $2,636,364.) In exchange, the Penguins sent two conditional draft picks, a third-rounder in 2022 and a fourth-rounder in ‘23.

The 2022 pick can be upgraded to a second-rounder should the Penguins reach the Stanley Cup Final this season with Carter playing in at least 50% of their games. Meanwhile, the ‘23 pick can become a third-rounder should Carter play in at least 50 games for the Penguins next season.

While Hextall previously had indicated he was hesitant to deal away any future assets, particularly given the organizations’ shallow pool of prospects, the price to add Carter was well worth it.

“He’s going to bring a lot to the table,” Hextall said. “I know our guys are excited about this deal, as our coaches and our management team as well.”

How exactly Carter fits in remains to be seen. There are hopes Carter can join the team Tuesday for practice in Cranberry.

Regardless, a number of his traits appealed to Hextall, who was part of the Flyers’ management team that selected Carter with the 11th overall pick in the 2003 draft. Additionally, as Kings assistant general manager, Hextall helped engineer a trade in February 2012 with the Columbus Blue Jackets that brought Carter to Los Angeles. A few months later, Carter scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal as the Kings won the franchise’s first championship.

“One of Jeff’s top attributes has always been his shot,” Hextall said. “He’s got a very good shot. He’s got a very good release. … In the playoffs, it’s not an easy thing to do. Some of the fancy plays go by the wayside, and you’ve got to put pucks at net. You’ve got to go there, and Jeff does an extremely good job at that. He gives us a right shot on the penalty kill and a right shot on faceoffs as well.”

Carter’s arrival clouds the Penguins’ offseason approach a bit. With the NHL’s salary cap expected to remain flat at $81.5 million, the looming expansion draft for the Seattle Kraken and franchise pillars such as Malkin and defenseman Kris Letang each entering the final years of their contracts, the addition of Carter offers more questions than answers this upcoming summer.

But Hextall’s focus is far more immediate.

His team’s success didn’t give him any other choice.

“The chemistry that this group has right now and has had the entire year is special,” Hextall said. “We weren’t going to add a depth player, so to speak. If we were going to add a player and take assets away, we were going to add a player that we felt like could make an impact.”

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