Thanks everybody for your kind and random comments. Now that it's released, I'll give everybody the Cole's Notes on Carter.
* The origin of Tacoman is that I've played on a senior men's basketball team called the Fighting Tacos for the last 32 years. We were sponsored by Yucatan's Taco Stand on Crowchild years ago and the name stuck. When you have a common first and last name like Steve King, you need different things for social media and internet monikers so that's that.
*Carter did have several teams making offers but he really liked the Flames situation. He liked the staff at dev camp last year and thought the opportunity with a rebuilding team with less depth at centre than some.
* As a player, you'll get nothing flashy from Carter. A casual fan will not notice him after a small sample of views. He plays a very structured, north-south game and doesn't take many chances with the puck. His attention to detail is what's made him a coach's favourite everywhere he's been and gains his coach's trust in key situations. For much of the season in Denver, he was playing around 23 minutes a night which is insane for a centre.
*As someone has pointed out, he's strong on faceoffs, finishing second in the country in faceoff wins. He's a thick body, playing at 200 lbs this year so he wins puck battles on the dot and along the boards and spends most of his time in the Ozone in front of the net.
* Offensively, he's got some upside that maybe Rooney does not have. His college numbers are very similar to Coleman's and they're almost identical in size. Getting over 100 points and 50 goals in the NCAA in the toughest conference is substantial and he also finished with the second most short handed goals in DU history - and they've had some decent players come through that program. He's a "right place at the right time" guy because he's got very high IQ offensively and defensively that creates those chances.
* Long ways to go before he should be considered a contender to make the Flames but I do think his coach in the AHL will learn pretty quickly that he is a guy that makes teams win.
That's my absolutely and completely biased view of this latest Flames signing!!
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