![\"Anaheim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/USATSI_28624415-1-1024x683.jpg\")
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John Carlson has found a long-term home in Tampa Bay. Griffin Hooper \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n
July 1, 2026 Updated 11:29 pm EDT<\/p>\n
Defenseman John Carlson agreed to a two-year, $17 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday, according to league sources speaking on conditions of anonymity because the deal is not yet official.<\/p>\n
Carlson was one of the top unrestricted free agents on the open market on Wednesday, even after the Carolina Hurricanes sent a sixth-round draft pick and a minor-league defenseman to the Anaheim Ducks to acquire his rights in order to negotiate early.<\/p>\n
A native of Natick, Mass., Carlson \u2014 who just completed an eight-year, $64 million contract \u2014 expressed a desire to return to a team in the Eastern Conference. The Ducks had hoped to re-sign Carlson after they traded their 2026 first-round pick to the Washington Capitals to acquire him before this season\u2019s trade deadline.<\/p>\n
Carlson, who had spent his entire career with the Capitals, had four goals \u2014 three of them in an April 9 win against San Jose for his first career hat trick \u2014 and 10 assists in 14 regular-season games with the Ducks before had added six assists in 12 playoff games as Anaheim reached the second round. The all-time leading scorer by a defenseman in Capitals history, Carlson had a combined 14 goals and 46 assists with Washington and Anaheim last season. His 60 points put him tied for 11th among defensemen across the league.<\/p>\n
Carlson was a first-round pick of the Capitals in 2008 and won the Stanley Cup with them in 2018. He became the franchise leader in goals (166), assists (605) and points (771) for a defenseman. He is second to Alex Ovechkin in all-time games played for Washington.<\/p>\n
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Jul 2, 2026<\/p>\n
Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n
Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n
Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Carlson has found a long-term home in Tampa Bay. Griffin Hooper \/ Imagn Images July 1, 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5691,135,862,137,136],"class_list":["post-326872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-nhl","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}