The Washington Capitals are not having the same dominating season they had in 2024-25. The team is hoping to make a run back to the playoffs, and this has the Capitals looking at some potential trades to improve the roster. Regardless of moves this season, GM Chris Patrick also has to look at the roster and future years, which may include long-time heart and soul defenseman John Carlson.
“Yeah, we've talked, and I've talked with his agent as well. So, we'll continue to have conversations here,” Patrick said in a press conference on Friday with the media regarding the future of Carlson.
Carlson is in the final season of an eight-year deal he signed with the team before the 2018-19 campaign. The defenseman was the 27th overall selection of the 2008 NHL Draft by the Capitals, and after some time in the AHL, broke into the NHL ranks with the team in 2009-10.
He has played 1,134 games with the franchise, finding the back of the net 165 times while dishing out 598 assists. He is second in franchise history in games played, third in assists, and fifth in points. The American-born blueliner is also second in Capitals history in plus/minus rating.
In recent years, his goal-scoring has waned somewhat. Carlson was consistently been between 13 and 17 goals for a five-year stretch, but he has regained that form in this campaign. This year, Carlson has lit the lamp nine times in 46 games, putting him well on pace to return to that 15-goal marker. Further, he has 29 assists this season. That total leads the team, and his points total is third on the roster, behind only Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson.
With the recent retirement of TJ Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom continuing his playing career in his home country of Sweden, Carlson is one of the few remaining members of the team that hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2018. If the D-man and the team cannot come to a contract extension, and this is the last year of Ovechkin, only Wilson and Nic Dowd will be on the roster from that historic championship campaign.
The Capitals are currently 24-20-6 on the season, which places them tied for fourth in the Metropolitan Division. If they are looking to make one more Cup run with Ovi, they need to find a way to make up ground in the playoff race, as they are currently three points out of a postseason berth — and have lost three games in a row.
That movement can begin on Wednesday, as the Caps visit the last-place Vancouver Canucks.
