Carter Rowney

Playing career

Rowney began his junior hockey career with the Grande Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He went undrafted by any NHL team and later enrolled at the University of North Dakota, where he studied managerial finance. From 2009 through 2013, he played for North Dakota’s ice hockey team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. He earned a spot on the All-WCHA Academic Team for both the 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons. In September 2012, North Dakota suspended Rowney, along with teammates Andrew MacWilliam, Corban Knight, and Danny Kristo, for the first game of the 2012–13 campaign after a team party led to a violation of team rules.

After college, Rowney signed an amateur tryout agreement with the Abbotsford Heat of the AHL on April 9, 2013. That October, he inked an AHL contract with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and he re-upped with the same club on a one-year AHL deal in July 2014. Following three seasons split between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers, Rowney landed his first NHL contract on March 9, 2016—a two-year, two-way deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins carrying an average annual value of $612,500. That same month, he was named AHL Player of the Month after putting up 17 points in 12 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

Rowney made his NHL debut on January 31, 2017, when Pittsburgh faced the Nashville Predators. On February 4, he notched his first NHL point by assisting on a Kris Letang goal against the St. Louis Blues. His first NHL goal came on March 17, 2017, beating New Jersey Devils goaltender Keith Kinkaid in a 6–4 Penguins victory. On June 11, 2017, after the Penguins shut out the Predators 2–0, Rowney won his first Stanley Cup. During the 2017–18 season, he broke his hand on October 21 while blocking a shot against the Tampa Bay Lightning, missing 14 games before returning on November 24. He suffered an upper-body injury on January 2 in a game versus the Philadelphia Flyers, sat out 11 games, and came back on February 2.