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Paul Carey had to wait until he was 29-years-old to spend an entire season in the NHL. Before signing his one-year, $650,000 contract with the New York Rangers on July 1, 2017 Carey was a career AHLer. This season he filled the role of a fourth liner and 13th forward.
With the Odds Stacked Against Him
The fact that Carey skated in 60 NHL games this season is pretty remarkable. Even if you aren’t a particularly big fan of the former fifth round pick, you have to feel good for a guy who battled his way into an NHL lineup at 29.
Carey’s game of the year was a two-goal effort against the Anaheim Ducks on December 19. Both of his goals came at even strength and both were set up by David Desharnais. It was his only multi-point performance of the year.
Oh, Carey also scored a memorable goal in the Winter Classic on January 1. So he deserves some stick taps for that.
Lost in the Mix
Unfortunately for Carey his two-goal performance on December 19 accounted for 14.3 percent of his points in 2017-18. The training camp and preseason dark horse finished the 2017-18 season with seven goals and seven assists in 60 games.
Carey skated less than 10 minutes in 33 of his games this year. He finished the season with an average ice time of 10:16 — the third lowest average ice time among Rangers forwards who appeared in at least 20 games in 2017-18. So, it’s safe to say that the Rangers’ coaching staff didn’t trust him to do much more than skate fourth line minutes at even strength. In addition to his tremendously limited ice time, Carey was also frequently a healthy scratch. The Massachusetts native finished the season with as many games played in a Rangers jersey as Rick Nash.
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Because Carey was an accomplished point producer in the AHL there was some hope that he could provide the Rangers with some offensive depth. But that didn’t quite work out. Carey’s ability to disappear in the lineup is perhaps best illustrated by the one goal he scored in his final 28 games of the season. But the most damning statistics from Carey’s first true NHL season were his possession numbers.
NYR Forwards Relative 5-on-5 Possession Data (min 500 minutes)
| Player | Position | GP | TOI | TOI/GP | CF/60 Rel | CA/60 Rel | CF% Rel | FF/60 Rel | FA/60 Rel | FF% Rel | SF/60 Rel | SA/60 Rel | SF% Rel | GF/60 Rel | GA/60 Rel | GF% Rel | SCF/60 Rel | SCA/60 Rel | SCF% Rel | HDCF/60 Rel | HDCA/60 Rel | HDCF% Rel | HDGF/60 Rel | HDGA/60 Rel | HDGF% Rel | On-Ice SH% | On-Ice SV% | PDO | Off. Zone Faceoffs/60 | Neu. Zone Faceoffs/60 | Def. Zone Faceoffs/60 | Off. Zone Faceoff % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Position | GP | TOI | TOI/GP | CF/60 Rel | CA/60 Rel | CF% Rel | FF/60 Rel | FA/60 Rel | FF% Rel | SF/60 Rel | SA/60 Rel | SF% Rel | GF/60 Rel | GA/60 Rel | GF% Rel | SCF/60 Rel | SCA/60 Rel | SCF% Rel | HDCF/60 Rel | HDCA/60 Rel | HDCF% Rel | HDGF/60 Rel | HDGA/60 Rel | HDGF% Rel | On-Ice SH% | On-Ice SV% | PDO | Off. Zone Faceoffs/60 | Neu. Zone Faceoffs/60 | Def. Zone Faceoffs/60 | Off. Zone Faceoff % |
| Mika Zibanejad | C | 72 | 930.21666666667 | 12.919675925926 | 11.8 | -4.83 | 7.23 | 9.69 | -5.29 | 8.51 | 6.09 | -5.97 | 9.29 | -0.12 | 0.58 | -6.36 | 6.31 | -5.08 | 9.63 | 2.59 | -3.4 | 11.78 | 0.24 | -0.21 | 7.45 | 6.17 | 89.62 | 0.958 | 22.7 | 23.03 | 20.64 | 52.38 |
| Chris Kreider | L | 58 | 720.76666666667 | 12.427011494253 | 9.34 | -6.04 | 6.61 | 8.94 | -5.38 | 8.08 | 5.16 | -5.13 | 7.94 | 0.06 | -0.64 | 7.53 | 4.91 | -4.48 | 7.78 | 1.41 | -2.96 | 8.66 | 0.2 | -0.44 | 11.04 | 7.48 | 93.65 | 1.011 | 21.39 | 21.73 | 21.14 | 50.29 |
| Rick Nash | R | 60 | 747.38333333333 | 12.456388888889 | 7.37 | -1.28 | 3.88 | 5.6 | -3.14 | 5.08 | 4.61 | -3.31 | 6.15 | -0.18 | -0.03 | -1.64 | 4.04 | -2.06 | 5.27 | 1.77 | -1.74 | 7.04 | 0.29 | -0.41 | 12.38 | 6.38 | 91.28 | 0.977 | 22.24 | 23.68 | 17.9 | 55.40 |
| Pavel Buchnevich | R | 74 | 882.16666666667 | 11.921171171171 | 5.8 | -2.05 | 3.46 | 3.53 | -0.37 | 2.32 | 2.55 | -1.13 | 2.89 | -0.09 | -0.78 | 6.89 | 1.56 | -1.49 | 2.58 | 0.33 | -0.45 | 1.53 | 0.16 | -1.04 | 23.88 | 7.26 | 93.82 | 1.011 | 20.27 | 21.02 | 15.85 | 56.12 |
| Mats Zuccarello | R | 80 | 1129.7666666667 | 14.122083333333 | 0.22 | -0.44 | 0.28 | 1.3 | -2.9 | 2.34 | 0.73 | -2.7 | 2.57 | 0.09 | -0.33 | 4.00 | 2.64 | -0.42 | 2.67 | 1.37 | -0.68 | 4.01 | -0.11 | -0.31 | 3.85 | 7.65 | 92.26 | 0.999 | 17.37 | 20.34 | 17.53 | 49.77 |
| Jesper Fast | R | 71 | 893.8 | 12.588732394366 | -3.08 | -3.29 | -0.15 | -1.98 | -2.11 | -0.12 | -1.89 | -1.12 | -0.79 | 0.29 | 0.68 | -2.85 | -2.05 | 0.42 | -2.21 | -1.96 | 0.4 | -4.84 | 0.14 | 0.74 | -9.75 | 9.18 | 90.41 | 0.996 | 16.45 | 20.21 | 22.62 | 42.10 |
| J.T. Miller | C, L | 63 | 848.58333333333 | 13.469576719577 | 1.17 | 2.02 | -0.26 | 1.68 | 1.85 | 0.02 | 1.65 | 2.61 | -0.55 | 0.64 | -0.29 | 9.45 | 1.17 | 0.99 | 0.24 | 1.14 | 0.35 | 1.56 | 0.37 | 0.44 | -1.56 | 8.50 | 92.90 | 1.014 | 20.29 | 19.94 | 16.55 | 55.09 |
| Kevin Hayes | C | 76 | 1011.3833333333 | 13.307675438596 | -1.88 | -0.32 | -0.75 | -0.23 | 0.48 | -0.39 | 0.51 | 0.36 | 0.17 | 0.56 | -0.48 | 10.36 | 0.04 | 0.04 | 0.00 | 1.1 | 1.02 | 0.16 | 0.41 | -0.38 | 13.02 | 8.84 | 93.12 | 1.020 | 15.31 | 21.36 | 20.59 | 42.64 |
| Jimmy Vesey | L | 79 | 977.4 | 12.372151898734 | -1.7 | 0.75 | -1.10 | -3.33 | 1.98 | -3.12 | -2.55 | 3.48 | -4.57 | 0.08 | 0.48 | -3.37 | -0.65 | 1.81 | -2.02 | -0.16 | -0.07 | -0.20 | 0.19 | 0.32 | -2.38 | 8.35 | 91.80 | 1.002 | 17.13 | 18.54 | 16.94 | 50.27 |
| Michael Grabner | R | 59 | 724.88333333333 | 12.28615819209 | -0.75 | 4.03 | -1.97 | 0 | 2.54 | -1.36 | 0.78 | 2.7 | -1.33 | 0.19 | -1.16 | 13.75 | 1.75 | 2.28 | -0.29 | 1.85 | 2.02 | -0.35 | -0.13 | -0.48 | 7.71 | 7.96 | 94.66 | 1.026 | 16.14 | 22.1 | 20.2 | 44.42 |
| David Desharnais | C | 71 | 804.61666666667 | 11.332629107981 | -8.79 | -1.26 | -3.80 | -8.14 | 0.69 | -5.64 | -5.63 | 0.21 | -5.00 | -0.39 | 0.35 | -7.30 | -5.26 | -2 | -3.45 | -2.87 | -1.66 | -2.86 | -0.39 | 0.58 | -15.35 | 7.47 | 90.93 | 0.984 | 19.24 | 19.16 | 16.18 | 54.32 |
| Paul Carey | C | 60 | 580.83333333333 | 9.6805555555556 | -10.43 | 0.24 | -5.33 | -9.41 | 0.64 | -6.63 | -6.98 | 1.28 | -7.17 | -0.84 | 0.76 | -16.80 | -4.86 | -2.38 | -2.83 | -3.3 | -0.3 | -6.95 | -0.87 | 0.48 | -24.68 | 6.93 | 91.43 | 0.984 | 12.71 | 19.01 | 14.77 | 46.24 |
Yeah, not good.
Carey had the worst relative possession numbers among Rangers forwards who played at least 500 minutes of 5-on-5 hockey this year. Couple that with his eight penalties taken and two penalties drawn and brutal GF% of 34.78 during 5-on-5 play and it’s clear that he was out of his element playing in the NHL.
Grade: D
In a word, Carey was unremarkable as a Ranger. Outside of a few games where he managed to make his mark, Carey was a superfluous forward who failed to establish himself in the lineup this season despite receiving several chances.
Carey becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Gorton and the Rangers should move on.
Contract information courtesy of capfriendly.com, analytics courtesy of Corsica.hockey and naturalstattrick.com.
2018 Report Cards: Marc Staal / Mats Zuccarello / Ryan Spooner / Rob O’Gara / Jimmy Vesey / Brendan Smith / Vladislav Namestnikov / Brady Skjei / Steven Kampfer / Jesper Fast / Alexandar Georgiev