The 34-year-old envisions himself playing in the NHL again and opens up about his continued recovery from his eye injury, hip resurfacing and three other surgeries and what's next.

ARLINGTON, V.A. -- Carl Hagelin has reasons to be angry. The last year has been doused in adversity, which has featured four surgeries and a freak accident that left him with permanent damage to his left eye. Still, as he leans against the wall of MedStar Capitals Iceplex, where the glare of the bright lights reminds him of what he's lost, he's all smiles. He refuses to feel any resentment or anger -- in fact, he can't feel those emotions, physically or mentally.

But how? How can Hagelin keep his head up during times like these, where his impressive career has been derailed by circumstances completely out of his control?

"That's just my personality. I think I've always kind of lived in the moment. You know, bad things happen," he said matter-of-factly, adding, "I've also never really worried about what other people think or what they saw or that you should feel sorry about yourself and these types of things. I've always been positive and kind of see the bright side of things."

Hagelin last played on Feb. 28, 2022, logging 16:24 in a loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then, less than 24 hours later, at a routine early practice, hell started to break loose.

In a routine competition drill, Hagelin was battling with a teammate for the puck. Both were giving a full effort and, as is the case in hockey, a stick came up. It went under Hagelin's notorious tilted visor and through Hagelin's left eye, ripping all the way through the back of it.

"My eye!" he shouted out at that practice. He was immediately helped off, a towel pressed against his face to stop the bleeding as he was rushed back to the dressing room.

At first, doctors thought that Hagelin's eye may have to be removed. Much to his relief, he was able to undergo two surgeries -- one on the front of the eye, one on the back -- to repair a ruptured choroid and "restitch" his pupil, a process that involves using sutures in the iris to help manage how much light gets into his pupil.

The Swede spent two weeks in "total darkness" and would only regain part of his vision and lost depth perception in that eye. His pupil is also always stuck in position and cannot dilate or contract, which makes it difficult to see and deal with glare. Sunglasses help, but he doesn't wear them all the time.

"I think after the eye injury, you're not going to get more scared than that than you are that day," Hagelin said. "Just the fact that I was able to see with this eye was, for me, a positive."

Hagelin would return to the ice, though. Ahead of training camp, he was skating with an aviator-style tinted visor, one that will stay as the tint keeps the lights out, to test out his vision and see how he would play with, essentially, one eye.

"Depth perception was definitely a big deal. You'd miss pucks and they come in slow and then it would come really fast," he explained. "But over the year, I've worked with Dr. [Keith] Smithson. He's a brain slash eye doctor up in Reston who works with pitchers with the Nats and stuff to kind of recalibrate my brain with the eyes so that the right eye does what it needs to do to help the left eye and then kind of figure out how to make the left eye as perfect as possible. Things got a lot better and feel pretty confident."

But that was just one aspect of recovery. There was another issue -- arguably bigger -- plaguing Hagelin that he ultimately knew would keep him out even longer. In fact, he was never even technically cleared to play after his eye injury, because there was no need to clear a player who wasn't going to play.

The next step for No. 62 was hip surgery to address years of pain that started in the playoff bubble in 2020. He and countrymate Nicklas Backstrom both dealt with similar pain and ultimately, both hit a breaking point.

"Tie pain just got to the point where it had to be done because every stride I took for those last couple years felt like I had a knife going into my groin. It was hard to play the game I wanted to play."

Hagelin underwent a hip arthroscopy in September with the hope that he would have some relief and be able to get some games in at some point. However, the procedure didn't do much for him, and the next surgery would be a tough one: hip resurfacing, the same experimental procedure Backstrom chose to have.

Hagelin had Backstrom and Andy Murray, as well as another Swedish league player, as reassuring success stories, but he also knew that it came with risks and had ended some careers. Still, there was no other option, and Hagelin had a metal ball and socket put in place in February.

"I think when I had the scope, right away they knew it wasn't a home run. My hip was really messed up," Hagelin said, adding, "We also had a kind of a deadline if it wasn't feeling good at a certain point, I need to get the resurfacing done... We always knew the resurfacing was going to happen, whether that was in a year or two years."

Four surgeries in 12 months. It's enough to drive anyone to the brink, but it only left Hagelin hungrier and motivated to come back. And of course, going through the motions of rehabilitation with the Capitals organization made it easier to remain optimistic.

"They've been great. They put me with the right people. You know, both my hip surgeons were the top surgeons in the U.S. My eye injury was the top surgeon in the U.S. and, overall, they've been there for me," Hagelin said. "We've had good discussions. I only have good things to say about the Caps."

The feeling is mutual, as his drive, determination and resilience have impressed the organization and his teammates, especially captain Alex Ovechkin.

"I never saw a guy who was so passionate about hockey," Ovechkin said. "He came here every day working hard, give us the positive emotions. He's been great."

And despite not being on the ice, Hagelin still found ways to contribute to the team. He was still a strong a locker room presence, trying to help the team find some optimism and lighten the mood in a disappointing season that saw the team miss out on the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

For the team, it made coming to the rink easier.

"What's impressed me with Carl is his attitude throughout the whole process... guys want to play on their own terms. With Hags, it was unfortunate because it was taken away from him," longtime linemate Nic Dowd, who hopes to play with Hagelin again down the road, said. "He's just done such a good job of maintaining a positive attitude, and he comes to the rink every single day. It'd be very easy for someone in his situation to have a negative attitude and bring bad exposure to himself, but he hasn't."

Hagelin is still feeling a bit weak and hasn't taken the ice yet, with the exception of a small twirl for the team photo. However, the plan, though, is to get back to skating sooner rather than later.

"I definitely want to get stronger... I'm thinking by the time June comes around, I want to skate on the ice, and in July and August, I want to skate really hard."

While that's just one part of the future, there's still the elephant in the room: what's next for his career? Hagelin turns 35 in August and is an unrestricted free agent, and his injuries aren't even close to being on the same level as a torn ACL or broken wrist. He's well aware of that and will have a conversation with his agents when the time is right.

"Once I feel good enough in my head, when I'm feeling on the ice that I can skate the way I want to skate, then I'll sit down with my agents and kind of see what the options are," Hagelin said.

He's also heard what critics have to say, the doubters who declare "that's too bad" or "he won't be back" when it comes to Hagelin's future. After all, his injuries and surgeries are difficult to come back from and, for some, improbable.

But Hagelin doesn't care. Hockey's been his life, his passion, and he refuses to listen to any of the critics as he tunes out the outside noise and doubts.

While everything needs to go smoothly and line up perfectly for him to make his comeback -- which is hard to think about considering luck hasn't been on Hagelin's side over the last 13 months, he is keeping his mind in the right place and envisions himself back playing on the world's biggest stage.

"My goal is to play again. Like I said, my hip needs to feel good, though, to do it. It kind of comes back to that; I need to get two and a half really good months on the ice skating. And that would be late August. And at that point, if it feels good, I want to play in the NHL again," Hagelin declared.