{"id":491286,"date":"2026-03-07T13:09:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/491286\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T13:09:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T13:09:18","slug":"alexander-ovechkin-left-in-shock-by-carlson-trade-unsure-on-his-own-future-with-washington-capitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/491286\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander Ovechkin left &#8216;in shock&#8217; by Carlson trade, unsure on his own future with Washington Capitals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Alexander Ovechkin was hit hard by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/washington-capitals\/15\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/washington-capitals\/15\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Capitals<\/a>\u2019 decision to trade long-time teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/john-carlson\/8474590\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/john-carlson\/8474590\" target=\"_blank\">John Carlson<\/a> to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/anaheim-ducks\/24\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/anaheim-ducks\/24\" target=\"_blank\">Anaheim Ducks<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Capitals flipped Carlson, a defenceman who had spent his entire 17-year NHL career with Washington, for a conditional first-round pick and a 2027 third-rounder on Thursday night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s a sad day. Probably the toughest day in my career&#8230;We (grew) up together,\u201d Ovechkin said, adding he was left \u201cin shock\u201d by the news.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 40-year-old winger\u2019s future also remains in question as he plays out the last of a five-year, $47.5 million contract this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Ovechkin said of how the Carlson trade affects his future. \u201cI\u2019m still here so we\u2019ll see. We\u2019ll see what\u2019s going to happen. It\u2019s a hard one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Alex Ovechkin said this is the saddest day of his career personally after John Carlson was traded.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TomGulittiNHL\/status\/2029952612905136336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 6, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Carlson is also a pending unrestricted free agent, carrying a cap hit of $8 million in the last season of his deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Ovechkin and Carlson have been teammates since Carlson made his NHL debut during the 2009-10 season and won the Stanley Cup together in 2018.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sitting four points back of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/boston-bruins\/6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/team-page\/boston-bruins\/6\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Bruins<\/a> for the final wild-card spot, the Capitals have established themselves as sellers ahead of the deadline moving <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/nic-dowd\/8475343\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/player\/nic-dowd\/8475343\" target=\"_blank\">Nic Dowd<\/a> earlier on Thursday before the Carlson deal. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Ovechkin was hit hard by the Washington Capitals\u2019 decision to trade long-time teammate John Carlson to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[34388,4759,5,58353,4,35805],"class_list":{"0":"post-491286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-alex-ovechkin-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8471214","9":"tag-apple-news","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-john-carlson-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8474590","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-washington-capitals-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-15"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116188061979884736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}