{"id":516811,"date":"2026-03-05T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516811\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:12:08","slug":"capitals-warned-of-john-carlson-shocker-before-nhl-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/516811\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals warned of John Carlson ‘shocker’ before NHL trade deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals<\/a> traded away Nic Dowd on Thursday, and that made it feel like they might just be looking toward the future.<\/p>\n

One way to do that in extreme fashion: a trade of John Carlson.<\/p>\n

The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun speculated<\/a> on Thursday about the idea of a Carlson “shocker” before the deadline.<\/p>\n

“I was asked on The Athletic Hockey Show on Monday about a name from left field \u2014 someone no one is talking about \u2014 to keep an eye on before the deadline,” LeBrun writes. “I said John Carlson because that would be a surprising trade. I think it\u2019s unlikely Carlson gets dealt because Washington wants to remain in the race and doesn\u2019t want to take away from the team. But with Carlson a pending UFA, it won\u2019t stop teams from calling on him, and I believe some have. I think it would have to be a really good offer to get Washington\u2019s attention, though.”<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Avalanche traded away, traded for defensemen born on exact same day<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlson is currently in the final year of an eight-year, $64 million contract that paid him $8 million exactly in each season.<\/p>\n

Now 36 years old, Carlson is in his 17th season with the Capitals.<\/p>\n

Carlson has played 1,143 NHL games for the Caps. He has 166 goals and 605 assists (771 points) to go with 2,179 blocked shots and 944 hits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This season, Carlson has 10 goals and 36 assists (46 points) in 55 games.<\/p>\n

Carlson’s tenure with Washington includes a Stanley Cup championship, too.<\/p>\n

The Capitals took him way back in the 2008 NHL Draft with the 27th overall pick. That has certainly worked out nicely.<\/p>\n

Would the Caps cut ties now? It would certainly be a big decision.<\/p>\n

More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals traded away Nic Dowd on Thursday, and that made it feel like they might just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-516811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}