If Hextall wanted Carter

I don't think you can risk putting Maatta or MacDermid on waivers. They have those guys signed through 2022 to satisfy the exposure requirement for defensemen. Unless you plan on leaving Pettersson unprotected, both Maatta and MacDermid need to stay on the roster. They can run with 8 defensemen for the rest of the season or send Bjornfot back to Ontario and it would still work, but M&M can't be on the taxi squad.

Fair enough.

Pens pass. I loved prime carter but he doesn’t make sense on pit now. I’d rather keep our defensive depth

Fair enough. Not sure if you've been following or not, but Carter has been doing very good so far this year and his teammates have stated that he's the fastest he's ever been in his career. Doughty was describing to NHL Network that in training camp, Carter literally flew right by him and that doesn't happen to Doughty often.

Take that for what it's worth, but this totally seems like something Hextall would do.

Fun fact, when the Kings traded Johnson for Carter in 2012, Hextall played a big part in it and convinced Lombardi that trading Jack Johnson and calling up Voynov would work out just fine on the backend.

Maybe he feels that way with Joseph and Pettersson, who knows. He loves Jeff Carter though and I think Carter would fit perfectly with Crosby probably Malkin too.

I think that there's a deal here, but as @tkecanuck341 points out, it wouldn't be for a defenseman. I'm envisioning something more along the lines of Carter for Legare.