Last December, it was rumored that the Montreal Canadiens had offered Jaroslav Halak to the Philadelphia Flyers for Jeff Carter.  At the trade deadline, the Florida Panthers offered the services of Tomas Vokoun for Jeff Carter.  How did Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren respond to the asking price for a goaltender?
“No Thanks.”
You could make the argument that either goaltender would have been the difference in the Stanley Cup Finals, but that presumes that Jeff Carter’s contributions to the team before and after these trades was negligible.  Carter netted 33 goals this season, a drop from his career high of 46 in the 2009-2010 season, but he can be regularly expected to score 30+ goals per season.  After losing Mike Knuble to the Washington Capitals via free agency and Joffrey Lupul to the Anaheim Ducks in the Chris Pronger trade, the team started the season expecting their remaining players on contract to step up.
Needless to say, not so much.
At 25-years old, Jeff Carter is still one of the youngest and most reliable centers in the league.¬† He has nowhere to go but up.¬† Homer knows this.¬† One member in the Flyers offices was quoted last December stating, ‚ÄúThe way this team has struggled scoring, it makes no sense to trade away one of the team’s biggest scoring threats.‚Äù
Homer has the mindset that he will not be swindled to plug up deficiencies in the Flyers line-up.  That does not mean that Carter is not being shopped around to see what the best return would be, but don’t expect the Flyers to make a trade just because they have too many quality centermen. Even if that is what many would like them to do.
