{"id":344626,"date":"2025-12-12T15:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344626\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T15:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T15:32:11","slug":"john-carlson-says-theres-no-chance-hes-retiring-at-seasons-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/344626\/","title":{"rendered":"John Carlson says there\u2019s \u2018no chance\u2019 he\u2019s retiring at season\u2019s end"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Carlson is in the final season of an eight-year, $64 million contract he signed with the Washington Capitals in 2018. While reportedly there haven\u2019t been any \u201creal\u201d extension talks between the two sides this season<\/a>, one thing is now completely clear: the soon-to-be 36-year-old rearguard is not hanging up his skates at season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman revealed the news in his latest 32 Thoughts column:<\/a><\/p>\n

18. John Carlson \u2014 without a second of pause \u2014 destroyed any rumours about retiring. \u201cNo chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlson, who crossed the 1,100 games milestone earlier this season and recently passed Nicklas Backstrom for second on the Caps\u2019 all-time games list<\/a>, is having another productive campaign, posting 23 points (6g, 17a) in 26 games. When Carlson is on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals are out-attempting (55.4%), out-chancing (54.4%), and out-scoring (26 to 19) their opponents by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

Carlson, however, has seen that success with his role somewhat reduced by Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery. Carlson was recently removed from the first power-play unit after struggles there and has seen his average ice time continue to drop from a career-high 25:54 in 2023-24 to 22:47 this season. Jakob Chychrun has seen the most ice time on the team, skating 23:26 per game.<\/p>\n

When general manager Chris Patrick addressed Carlson\u2019s contract status this past May, he was open that the Capitals were not going to rush into a new deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Carlson] is obviously a huge part of our team and had a great season, and all expectations are he\u2019s going to have another great season next year,\u201d Patrick said then. \u201cIt probably makes sense just to see how things play out a little bit. We\u2019re a mature team and transitioning to a younger team, and we just want to make sure that we\u2019re putting guys in the right position to have success and that expectations line up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since then, The Athletic\u2019s Pierre LeBrun reported that Carlson would like to sign an extension with the Capitals<\/a>, but is also not willing to accept just any offer that the team presents him. <\/p>\n

The Fourth Period\u2019s David Pagnotta recently added that when extension talks begin between the two sides, a new deal should not be hard to strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pagnotta writes:<\/a><\/p>\n

I am led to believe the conversation between Patrick and Carlson\u2019s camp, once it occurs, will be quick and contract negotiations should not be difficult.<\/p>\n

\u2026I don\u2019t believe [Carlson] has any concerns over his future in D.C.<\/p>\n

Though, as Carlson has continued to twist in the wind, the Capitals have reportedly looked into potentially trading for superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes<\/a> from the Vancouver Canucks. The Capitals are also expected to sign prospect rearguard Cole Hutson after he completes his sophomore season at Boston University in the spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Carlson is in the final season of an eight-year, $64 million contract he signed with the Washington…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-344626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}