Philadelphia Flyers GM Paul Holmgren is not wasting any time locking up his pending free agents. Less than a week after locking up Claude Giroux to a three-year deal, Holmgren managed to lock up star forward Jeff Carter to an 11-year/$58M contract that will keep Carter in the City of Brotherly Love until he is 36-years-old. At 25-years-old and in his sixth season, Carter had one more year of restricted free agency left before hitting the open market, and is in the final year of a 3-year/$15M contract. The cap hit ($5.27M) for his extension will be well below market value for someone of Carter?s skills. The yearly breakdown is as follows: ? 2011-12: $6 million ? 2012-13: $6.25 million ? 2013-14: $6.5 million ? 2014-15: $6.75 million ? 2015-16: $7 million ? 2016-17: $7 million ? 2017-18: $6.5 million ? 2018-19: $5 million ? 2019-20: $3 million ? 2020-21: $2 million ? 2021-22: $2 million The breakdown further proves just how much money Carter left on the table in order to stay with Philadelphia, with only two seasons of earning $7M. On the open market, Carter surely could have received offers averaging in excess of $6M a season, maybe even $7M yearly. Teams with money and dire need at center like Toronto and the Rangers were surely hoping that Carter was to reach the open market. Because of the rules around signing RFAs to offer sheets, it can be difficult to lure them away. But for awhile it appeared that Carter would be too expensive for Philadelphia to keep, and thus would have allowed him to sign an offer sheet elsewhere and accept the compensation of three first round draft picks. That was a realistic situation for opposing teams until Philadelphia managed to ink Carter for well below market value. In his first five seasons, Carter scored fewer than 23 goals only once, and that was an injury depleted 62-game sophomore season. In 2008-09, Carter poured in 46 goals, second only to Alexander Ovechkin?s 56, and had 84 points in 82 games. Last season he dropped back to 33 goals and 61 points in 74 games. But considering his age and talents, he seems to be a lock to net 35-40 goals and anywhere from 70-85 points for the majority of this contract if healthy, undoubtedly first-line All-Star talent. Compare Carter to Alexander Semin, who had one 40 goal season, and two others at 34 and 38. Semin is one year older, playing in a more offensive system, and is headed to unrestricted free agency reportedly seeking up to $8M annually. Compared to Semin, Carter comes across looking like the steal of a lifetime and a martyr for what he is sacrificing on the open market in order to stay with the Flyers on a Cup contending team, and give them financial leeway so that they don?t have a situation like the New Jersey Devils this year. No matter which way you look at it, Carter turned down at least $10-$20M on the open market to stay in Philadelphia and gain security through the next CBA, on a contract that is a huge win for the Flyers and GM Paul Holmgren. Grade for Carter: B- Grade for Philadelphia: A+ Nick is RealGM?s NHL Feature Writer. You can reach him by email [email protected] or on twitter @NickObergan