What a year it was for the Rangers fourth line, in no small part due to Sam Carrick. Initially an afterthought and a bit of a questionable signing, Carrick silenced his many doubters with his play as one of the few bright spots on the Rangers last year. Grading a Sam Carrick report card is pretty easy, as not only was he one of the few bright spots, he’s one of the few that actually did his job on the ice.
Carrick played 80 games last season, putting up 6 goals and 20 points in fourth line minutes with overwhelmingly defensive zone starts. His raw defensive metrics look a bit rough, with both CF% and xGF% numbers well below 50%, but those factor in offense as well, which simply isn’t a part of Carrick’s game. Role matters, and much like purely offensive players graded mostly on offense, we should be grading Carrick mostly on defense.
Isolating the defensive numbers, Carrick’s shutdown game was strong last season. Given the absolute train wreck of a team that was the Rangers in their own zone, Carrick was strong in his own zone while excelling in retrieving dump ins and quickly turning the play up the ice with successful zone exits. For a team that played Hot Potato with the puck, Carrick was surprisingly calm and consistent.
Carrick earned top marks last year and will be expected to reprise the same role this year, hopefully with a healthy Adam Edstrom pinned to his left wing (right wing will likely be a rotation with Matt Rempe and Jonny Brodzinski). Ideally they are able to chip in a bit more on offense and see an improvement in offensive chances, but that’s a stretch goal. For now, Carrick’s and 4L’s role is defensive zone starts as a shutdown line, which Carrick simply nailed last year.
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