{"id":758114,"date":"2026-07-12T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758114\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T07:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T07:00:11","slug":"john-carlson-thought-there-was-a-zero-percent-chance-alex-ovechkin-would-retire-it-just-was-always-my-gut-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758114\/","title":{"rendered":"John Carlson thought there was a \u2018zero percent\u2019 chance Alex Ovechkin would retire: \u2018It just was always my gut feeling\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime Washington Capitals<\/a> defenseman John Carlson<\/a> found his new home late on the first day of free agency, signing a two-year, $17 million contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

\"RMNB\"<\/p>\n

While Carlson spent much of his first press conference with the media explaining why he chose the Lightning, he was also asked about his longtime teammate, Alex Ovechkin<\/a>, signing a one-year contract extension to return for a 22nd NHL season.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin had been noncommittal about his future throughout the 2025-26 campaign, but Carlson never thought Ovechkin would choose to retire.<\/p>\n

\u201cZero percent,\u201d Carlson replied when asked if he was surprised by Ovechkin\u2019s decision. \u201cI knew that he was coming back for a long time. I just felt it. I mean, he didn\u2019t explicitly say it to me, but I just, you can just tell, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m making a decision,\u2019 whatever. And I\u2019m sure that there were conversations to be had and decisions to be made on his end, too. It just was always my gut feeling that he wasn\u2019t ready to give it up. And good for him. He\u2019s been an amazing player for far too long in this league. And it\u2019s just incredible what he\u2019s been able to accomplish. And, you know, I\u2019m thrilled that he gets to keep living out that dream and to have his say and all that. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the Capitals added four major players in free agency \u2014 Alex Tuch<\/a>, Jordan Kyrou<\/a>, Boone Jenner<\/a>, and Vincent Desharnais<\/a>, Ovechkin ultimately signed a one-year contract extension worth $4.25 million. He can also achieve a $4.75 million performance bonus if he plays in 10 or more games next season.<\/p>\n

The Capitals\u2019 offseason improvements, combined with Ovechkin\u2019s health and his family\u2019s blessings, made him comfortable putting pen to paper so he could chase the Stanley Cup for perhaps the final time.<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

\"RMNB\"<\/p>\n

While Carlson was excited about Ovechkin returning, he was not eager to play against him next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say looking forward, no,\u201d Carlson said, leaving it at that.<\/p>\n

Carlson\u2019s career in Washington ended on March 6 as the the team looked unlikely to make the postseason. Capitals GM Chris Patrick dealt Carlson in the middle of the night to the Anaheim Ducks<\/a> ahead of the NHL trade deadline for two high draft picks.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

\"RMNB\"<\/p>\n

Carlson is the Capitals\u2019 franchise leader for defenseman in career points (772), goals (166), game-winning goals (32), power-play points (273), and games played (1,143). He\u2019s also assisted on 162 of Ovechkin\u2019s goals<\/a>, second-most to Nicklas Backstrom\u2019s 279.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m truly happy for him. I felt that he really wanted to come back. And I\u2019m glad that he came to that decision. I think it\u2019s great for everyone. I think it\u2019s great for hockey, and certainly I think, obviously it was a family decision for him, which is the most meaningful, and they\u2019ve arrived on the right choice in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Longtime Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson found his new home late on the first day of free agency,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-758114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758114","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=758114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}