Rangers' Sam Carrick expected to play a physical role at center
Sam Carrick, right, battles for the puck with Ryan Lindgren during Rangers training camp at the team's training facility in Greenburgh, N.Y., on Sept. 21. Credit: Neil Miller
GREENBURGH — Sam Carrick spent three-quarters of the 2023-24 season mired in losing, playing for an Anaheim Ducks team that was going nowhere.
And then, suddenly, he was rescued. A couple of days before the NHL trade deadline in March, the Ducks sent Carrick and Adam Henrique to the Edmonton Oilers in a three-team trade that netted the Ducks a first-round pick in 2024 and a conditional pick in 2025.
Just like that, Carrick, 32, and Henrique, 34, went from one of the league’s worst teams to an Oilers team that wound up losing to Florida in seven games in the Stanley Cup Final.
“It really felt like a refresh of the career,’’ Carrick said Friday. “It’s some dark days there when you’re halfway through the season and you’re out of the playoff picture and you don’t have anything to play for.’’
Carrick appeared in 10 playoff games for the Oilers — the first playoff games of his NHL career — and then signed a three-year, $3 million contract with the Rangers as a free agent, replacing the departed Barclay Goodrow as the fourth-line center.
“He’s a guy that we’re going to count on for faceoffs, penalty kill, some physicality and just a little bit of edge to his game,’’ Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said Friday. “There’s definitely a need and a role for that on our team — guys that go out there and play with an edge, and when the game’s on the line, be able to deliver.’’
Carrick had eight goals, three assists and 90 penalty minutes in 61 games for Anaheim last season and two goals, three assists and 12 penalty minutes in 16 games for Edmonton after the trade. He won 53.4% of his faceoffs for both teams.
With the Rangers, he is one of two new faces in the locker room, along with winger Reilly Smith, and will be replacing the popular Goodrow, who was waived over the summer in a salary cap maneuver and claimed off waivers by San Jose.
“Year to year, when I was with Anaheim, it seemed like there was a lot of [roster] turnover,’’ Carrick said when asked about being the new guy in the room. “That’s usually because when the team’s not doing very well, then they tend to mix things up. But when the team’s doing well, they tend to keep things together. So yeah, I think part of my job is just to come in here and be a good fit.’’
In his first preseason game with the Rangers on Thursday against the Bruins, the 6-foot, 202-pound Carrick centered a line with 6-7, 241-pound Adam Edstrom and 6-8, 255-pound Matt Rempe on his wings. The line produced Edstrom’s empty-net goal that sealed the Rangers’ 5-2 victory.
“For the fourth line, we don’t want to just play a couple minutes a night and not really help out the team,’’ Carrick said. “We want to be a line that can go there, create energy every shift, be reliable, [so the coaches can] put us out there on defensive zone draws.
“And any time we can chip in offensively as well, it’s a bonus.’’
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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