{"id":208171,"date":"2026-03-07T00:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/208171\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T00:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T00:31:17","slug":"a-somber-day-for-the-capitals-after-trading-longtime-defenseman-john-carlson-to-anaheim-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/208171\/","title":{"rendered":"A somber day for the Capitals after trading longtime defenseman John Carlson to Anaheim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hours after the Capitals traded veteran defenseman John Carlson, his picture was still on a banner hanging over a garage outside the team’s practice facility.<\/p>\n


\n FILE -Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson (74) in action during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Nick Wass, File)(AP\/Nick Wass)<\/p>\n


\n FILE -Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson (74) in action during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators, Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Nick Wass, File)(AP\/Nick Wass)<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) \u2014 John Carlson\u2019s picture was still on a banner hanging over a garage outside the Washington Capitals\u2019 practice facility.<\/p>\n

Inside, emotions were fresh \u2014 hours after the team had traded the veteran defenseman.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a sad day,\u201d Alex Ovechkin said. \u201cProbably the toughest day in my career, I\u2019m talking about personal-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday was a jarring day for the Capitals after they traded Carlson to Anaheim in the middle of the night. He\u2019d been with the team for nearly 17 seasons and was a key part of the run to a Stanley Cup title in 2018. Carlson\u2019s contract was set to expire, but the deal \u2014 which netted first- and third-round draft picks for Washington \u2014 was a bold move with the Caps just four points out of a postseason spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally hard call. Very emotional, obviously,\u201d general manager Chris Patrick said. \u201cWith where we were, where we are in the standings, and an opportunity to get some good assets for the future, it felt like the prudent thing to do. There might not ever be another player, another defenseman, for the Washington Capitals like John Carlson, and that\u2019s not lost on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in mid-January, Patrick portrayed the Capitals as likely buyers<\/a> in what could be Ovechkin\u2019s final NHL season, but even then their postseason spot wasn\u2019t a certainty, and the terrain in the Eastern Conference only looks tougher now.<\/p>\n

Washington plays at Boston on Saturday in what feels close to a must-win game. The Capitals are four points behind the Bruins for the second wild card, with Boston having played two fewer games. Within the Metropolitan Division, Washington is six points behind Pittsburgh and the New York Islanders, who are tied for second place.<\/p>\n

The Capitals aren\u2019t even the top team below the playoff cut line, having fallen three points behind Columbus.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the teams we were chasing and the teams behind us all gained ground,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cWe were already in a tough spot before the (Olympic) break. I think we were already heading in this direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick said the team isn\u2019t giving up on this season, but he\u2019d spoken with Carlson a couple weeks ago alerting him that other teams were calling. Washington also traded respected role player Nic Dowd and acquired defenseman Timothy Liljegren and forward David Kampf before Friday\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n

The two players the Capitals gave up might have been gone after this season anyway, but players were clearly shaken by the suddenness of Carlson\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s brutal. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some guys that want to cry,\u201d said Tom Wilson, who sounded like he might have been one of those ready to shed a few tears. \u201cThat\u2019s the reality of it. Today you can cry, and tomorrow you got to wake up and be a big boy and go out and play hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson and Ovechkin are the lone remaining players from Washington\u2019s Stanley Cup-winning team, and Ovechkin is in the final year of his contract. The 40-year-old Ovechkin\u2019s future is its own uncertain topic, but otherwise much of the Capitals\u2019 core \u2014 Wilson, Logan Thompson, Dylan Strome, Aliaksei Protas, Jakob Chychrun and Pierre-Luc Dubois \u2014 is locked up for at least the next two seasons and in some cases much longer.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright
\n \u00a9\u00a02026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hours after the Capitals traded veteran defenseman John Carlson, his picture was still on a banner hanging over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":{"0":"post-208171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}