Lou Lamoriello set out to re-sign all three members of the 4th line this summer, and he's locked up 2/3 thus far in Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier.
That's all well and good - they're both signed cheap and have been effective in the past - but in my estimation they haven't locked up the most important member of the 4th line: Ryan Carter.
In the past teams put premiums on 4th liners who bring grit, intangibles and all that nonsense that more or less translates to icing a line filled with players who do nothing but punch people, take bad penalties and spend entire shifts chasing play in their own zone.
Now teams - at least the good ones - put a premium on players like Carter who can skate, chip in offensively here and there and serve as more than a possession anchor who spends more time in the box than on the ice.
Some believe having anchor on the 4th line isn't a big deal because they don't play a lot, but Carter's 10 minutes a night are much more valuable than people think.
He scored seven goals in 62 games (10 goal pace) which is excellent production from a role player, while playing some penalty kill, and driving play at a better than 50% rate.
Here's how his numbers stack up to the other members of the 4th line.
Bernier posted the best possession numbers because he spent some time in the top-6 with possession drivers, but Carter lead the way in 5 vs 5 points/60 as well as penalty differential.
Most 4th lines have at least 1-2 guys who take bad penalty after bad penalty and constantly put their team down a man, so having guys with positive differentials is a huge advantage. Carter's plus-10 differential was 2nd best on the Devils (behind Adam Henrique, plus-12) so he was able to spoon feed the team power plays, which was very important given their inability to fill the net at full strength.
That likely won't be as much of an issue next year with Mike Cammalleri and Martin Havlat joining the team, but it's a nice advantage nonetheless.
Lamoriello said several times that he wants to bring Carter back, and quite frankly he needs to. He's pivotal to the 4th line's success, and is much more important to the team than people want to believe.
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