The Capitals general manager said he spoke with Carlson at 6 a.m.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Washington Capitals general manager Chris Patrick was on the verge of tears as he described his 6 a.m. phone call with John Carlson, where he let the longtime franchise defenseman that he'd been traded to the Anaheim Ducks.
The early conversation was the only option at the end of the day for Patrick;
Washington made the trade call around 1 a.m. ET on Friday, electing to do that and immediately call Carlson rather than sit on the news until the morning and have him find out through social media or leaks. Carlson was already asleep and didn't answer, but the two were able to touch base in the morning, where Patrick relayed the news.
Patrick was expecting Carlson to be angry. He wasn't.
“It was sad, it was hard. He was upset and so was I. He’s a pro... he understood," Patrick said.
The Capitals didn't want it to come to this.
Carlson had spent all 17 years of his career in D.C., becoming the franchise's all-time leading scorer among defenseman. All the while, he was one of the key leaders in the Washington dressing room, someone that multiple players looked up to over the course of his tenure, and a fixture in the community.
"There might not ever be another player, another defenseman for the Washington Capitals like John Carlson, and that's not lost on us," Patrick said.
This season had other plans, though.
Earlier in the campaign, Patrick and Carlson had touched base about potentially signing an extension. However, when Patrick officially sat down with Carlson's agent, Washington had fallen to seventh in the standings, and as talks further intensified, the Capitals fell out of playoff position entirely.
That put those extension talks on pause, and in turn, teams started calling, asking about the 36-year-old defenseman's availability.
"I had a discussion with his agent and then him probably two weeks ago, just with where we were in talking contract and where the team was, that we're just going to pause on it for a little bit. I just told him, like, 'Look, we're (a few points) out of the playoffs,' I said, 'Teams are calling, I don't know if something's going to happen. I don't necessarily want something to happen, but I also have to do my job, and if there's an offer there that I think makes sense, we'll have to pursue it.'"
"I just think at that point, if you're going to miss the playoffs, you have to justify every move you're making, and it felt like to do a contract at that point in the season, it wasn't the right path to follow," he added.
Ultimately, Anaheim had an offer that Patrick couldn't turn down, as the Capitals received a first-round and third-round pick in exchange for Carlson.
It was an extremely difficult call for Patrick to make, and he's well-aware of the fallout, too, with the locker room hurting and visibly distraught after parting ways with a cornerstone player.
However, it was a move that he felt he had to, and he said he still has faith in the current group to keep pushing down the final stretch.
"Very emotional for the team, for management, for John, for his family," Patrick said. "With where we were, where we are in the standings and an opportunity to get some good assets for the future, it felt like the prudent thing to do.
"He's been an ultimate professional, a massive part of the community and obviously his on-ice product has been second to none," Patrick added. "Not a decision that we came by lightly but something that we felt was — when you looked at it rationally — the right decision to make for our organization going forward."