The Washington Capitals dealt veterans John Carlson and Nic Dowd, showing that GM Chris Patrick is looking to get younger. The team continues to retool on the fly as they build a new core and stay competitive.
The Washington Capitals surprised hockey fans in the very early hours on Friday.
At 1:11 a.m. ET, the Capitals announced they traded longtime defenseman John Carlson to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for a conditional 2026 first-round draft pick and a 2027 third-round pick.
Carlson reportedly only found out about the trade in the morning because he was asleep at the time.
The decision to trade such a stalwart Capitals player, who set franchise records among defensemen in games played, goals, assists, points and more, was probably pretty crushing for the team, player and fan base. Add that to the squad only being four points out of a playoff spot, and the Capitals are anything but all-in to try to make the post-season.
That said, the trade continued a theme about Washington's roster development over the past few years as they transition from one era to another.
Though they didn't receive any roster players in the return, Carlson's departure says the Capitals are looking to get younger.
Without the 36-year-old pending UFA, Washington has just three players on its active roster who are aged 33 or older. Left winger Alex Ovechkin (40) and defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk (34) and Dylan McIlrath (33) are the three oldest players on the team.
On Thursday, the Capitals also traded center Nic Dowd to the Vegas Golden Knights. In return, they got 23-year-old goaltender Jesper Vikman, a 2027 third-round pick and a 2029 second-round pick.
Dowd is a 35-year-old pending UFA, so the Caps once again received assets to get younger.
Last season, the Capitals were the third-oldest team in the NHL with an average age of 28.59, according to eliteprospects.com. Now, they're only the 17th-oldest position with a 28.14 average age, with 10 teams now having an average age of 29 or older.
However, with these battle-tested veterans being shipped out, the return has predominantly been draft picks. That shows signs of the team's brass "being realistic" at this trade deadline, as TSN's Pierre LeBrun said.
Capitals Continue To Retool On The Fly
Over the past three years, the Capitals have traded away Dmitry Orlov, Marcus Johansson, Garnet Hathaway, Joel Edmundson, Anthony Mantha, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Darcy Kuemper and Nick Jensen. They also had to move on from T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom due to injuries.
But the players they have brought in have refreshed the Capitals' roster.
Logan Thompson, 29, is their new No. 1 goalie, and he's been in the Vezina Trophy conversation this year. He's signed through 2030-31.
Jakob Chychrun, 27, is the ninth-highest scorer among NHL defensemen, with 49 points. He's signed through 2032-33.
Rasmus Sandin, 25, has 22 points in 56 games and is signed through 2028-29.
Pierre-Luc Dubois, 27, has been injured for most of this season, but he has six points in 11 games, and he had a nice bounce-back season last year with 66 points in 82 games. He's signed through 2030-31.
Roy, 31, has 15 points in 60 games and is signed through 2029-30.
Ryan Leonard, a 21-year-old drafted eighth overall in 2023, sits fifth in rookie scoring with 31 points.
The Capitals also infused prospects into the lineup over the past five years, such as Aliaksei Protas, Martin Fehervary, Connor McMichael, Ethen Frenk, Justin Sourdif, Hendrix Lapierre, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Charlie Lindgren.
They still have Cole Hutson, Andrew Cristall, Ilya Protas and others in the pipeline as well.
With that, the Caps have two first-round picks for the upcoming draft - including Anaheim's conditional first from the Carlson trade - and have their own first-round pick in the 2027 and 2028 drafts.
They're missing a second-round pick for the 2026 draft, but one each in the next two following drafts.
Though they aren't completely out of the hunt, Washington is four points behind the Boston Bruins, who hold the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With that, the Bruins have two games in hand on the 2018 Stanley Cup champions.
In the past few years, the Capitals have been executing a retool on the fly, which was a big reason why they finished first in the Eastern Conference last season. And it seems like Patrick's method has not changed, given the moves he's made ahead of this deadline.
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