"I always believed, up until the last minute, that I was going to be coming back," Carle told the Daily News on Sunday morning after the Lightning's pre-game skate. "For me, I think I was 'Plan B' for a lot of teams. I was waiting out Suter. To sit and wonder what was going on was a bit weird. You hear July 1 and you think something's going to happen that day. That gave me some time, and the Flyers, I'm sure, and other organizations to see how it was going to play out and do some homework."