Sam Carrick has spent enough time in the NHL to know the road rarely looks straight. His route to 400 games has been anything but.
The Sabres forward, 34, is set to reach the milestone Wednesday against the Ottawa Senators in KeyBank Center, and he’s doing it after a career that started 14 years ago in Boise, Idaho, with 50 games for the ECHL’s Steelheads. From there, he climbed to the AHL and spent most of the next eight seasons there, with only occasional calls to the NHL.
Through his first nine pro seasons, Carrick logged just 47 big-league appearances, enough time to wonder if the league might never fully open its doors to him.
“A lot of time in the minors, and a lot of time thinking that it probably wasn’t gonna happen for me,” Carrick said prior to what is expected to be his 400th game, Wednesday’s contest against the Ottawa Senators in KeyBank Center.
He eventually forced his way in with Anaheim in 2021-22, when he played 64 games, and he has said the COVID-19 pandemic helped extend his shot at sticking around. Once he got that chance, he made it count.
Over the last six seasons, Carrick has settled in as a reliable fourth-liner, the kind of player who can slide into different roles and keep earning ice time. Ruff said that persistence is the defining trait.
“It tells you (he has) a never-quit attitude, for sure,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. “A guy that has just kept working and found a way to get in the game and now stay in the game and be a piece that can help you win hockey games.”
Carrick’s value showed up quickly after he arrived from the New York Rangers before last season’s trade deadline. He chipped in goals, handled important faceoffs, killed penalties and brought the edge that comes with being willing to fight.
That physical side came with a cost. On March 31, during a scrap with Anders Lee, Carrick landed hard on his left arm and wound up out of the lineup for six weeks with an undisclosed injury.
He returned for one game in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, then disappeared from the lineup again.
“That was a substantial injury, for sure,” Ruff said. “I’ve asked him. I don’t know if it’s ever going to be like it was before when you suffer something like that.”
Ruff added that Carrick’s recent four-game absence was not tied to that injury from last season, though the forward is still working through it more than seven months later.
“I’m taking the right steps at this point and starting to feel better and better each day,” Carrick said.
He said the injury has improved to “the point where I’m worried about it.”
“So that’s good,” Carrick said. “That’s kind of the main goal is just not being worried.”
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