Appreciate your sympathy, but if Matt Carle as our sixth defenseman is going to break what is probably the best defensive unit in the NHL, then there's something else going on.
He very well could. The Carle-Sustr pairing made Lightning fans wince whenever they went onto the ice. I'm still not big on Sustr but he wasn't nearly as awful once he was separated from Carle.
Nothing against him personally - I wish him the best and hope he can revitalize his career. But by the end I was so disgusted with him that I wanted Vinik to offer him an extra million or two if after his retirement he would agree never to put on a blue shirt again. I not only wanted him gone, I wanted him to never again wear anything that could even be mistaken for a Lightning jersey.
That's a tad extreme
You didn't sit through all those games. He was downright horrendous.
Why was he playing 20+ minutes towards the end of the season
I have a feeling that when his every move isn't being judged in the context of his contract, and he's only being asked to play ~12 minutes a night, (and can simply be sent down and his entire cap hit vanishes) he'll do just fine as a bottom pairing guy in Nashville.