Returning to Sault Ste. Marie, former NHL star and two-time Stanley Cup champion Jeff Carter is looking back fondly at his years with the Soo Greyhounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big part of my life is here in Sault Ste. Marie.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the days and hours leading up to the retirement of his jersey number by the Soo Greyhounds, Jeff Carter has had a lot of time to reflect on four seasons spent with the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s right up near the top,\u201d Carter said when asked where the Sault falls for him as he looks back on his life and hockey career. \u201cI came here as a 16-year-old kid (and) left as a 20-year-old man if you will. It\u2019s kind of where I grew up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking back on being selected by the Greyhounds in the 2001 OHL Priority Selection, Carter remembers some uncertainty on where he could have been drafted to.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what was going to happen, where I was going to go,\u201d Carther said.<\/p>\n
The day would ultimately see the London product get selected by the Greyhounds third overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d never been up here and didn\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI knew the Greyhounds from going to Knights games and watching them, but knew nothing about the city and really about anything up here to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter said he remembers receiving a phone call from then-Greyhounds coach Craig Hartsburg after being selected.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe called the house and talked to my dad and my mom for a while and then I talked to him,\u201d Carter said. \u201cA couple of weeks later, we drove up for the development camp. I\u2019m just grateful for how everything worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The draft that year produced a number of players in addition to Carter that went on to successful NHL careers, including Mike Richards and Corey Perry, who were selected with the two picks immediately following Carter by Kitchener and London respectively.<\/p>\n
Carter and Richards would become teammates in the NHL with the Los Angeles Kings and won a pair of Stanley Cups together.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lucked out with that one, getting traded to L.A. at the right time,\u201d Carter smiled when asked about his Cup wins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t even describe (winning),\u201d Carter added. \u201cAs a young kid, that\u2019s what you play for. To get a chance to go to L.A. and join that team at the right time and just be a piece of the puzzle is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on his time in the NHL, in addition to his Stanley Cups, Carter added that he\u2019s proud of his ability to adapt in his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, the Cups are the top,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI\u2019m extremely proud of my career and what I was doing, how long I was able to play. As your career goes on, you get older and your roles kind of change too. In Pittsburgh, I was playing on the fourth line, taking faceoffs, killing penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust how I was able to still find a way to contribute and help the team is something that I\u2019m really proud of,\u201d Carter added.<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s 19-year NHL career saw him play in 1,321 games between the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings, and Pittsburgh Penguins. He went on to score 442 goals and 851 points.<\/p>\n
In four seasons with the Greyhounds, Carter led the team in scoring three times and produced 123 goals and 246 points in 236 games with the franchise.<\/p>\n
The friendships he made with the Greyhounds during those four seasons also stand out for Carter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still guys that I talk to to this day,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI see Trevor Daley all the time in Pittsburgh and talk to Smitty (Jordan Smith) a lot. That last year, I think if we had won that first round (against Windsor), we could have maybe done something, but it\u2019s the friendships. Winning is obviously great, and I\u2019m grateful to win two Stanley Cups, but it\u2019s the friendships that you make over the years that really last with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s all about,\u201d Carter added when asked about his friendships from his time with the Greyhounds. \u201cI see Tyler Kennedy a lot out in Pittsburgh. That\u2019s what it\u2019s all about really for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carter\u2019s No. 7 was officially raised to the rafters prior to puck drop of Saturday\u2019s game between the Greyhounds and London Knights.<\/p>\n
Carter joins a group that includes Hartsburg (No. 4), Adam Foote (No. 5), Ron Francis (No. 10), Joe Thornton (No. 19) and Wayne Gretzky (No. 99).<\/p>\n
Around the OHL, Carter\u2019s jersey retirement was one of two in the OHL on Saturday as the Guelph Storm also recognized former forward Dustin Brown in a similar ceremony on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Brown and Carter played together with the Kings during Carter\u2019s entire time with the organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Returning to Sault Ste. Marie, former NHL star and two-time Stanley Cup champion Jeff Carter is looking back…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,135087,82],"class_list":["post-300814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-soo-greyhoundsjersey-retirementsoo-greyhounds-jersey-retirementjeff-carter","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}