Ovechkin says end of Carlson era with Capitals ‘toughest day in my career’

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Alex Ovechkin woke up Friday to the news that defenseman John Carlson had been traded to the Anaheim Ducks and the reality of life on the Washington Capitals without his longtime teammate hit him like nothing previously during his 21 NHL seasons.

“It’s obviously a sad day,” Ovechkin said. “Probably the toughest day in my career, I’m talking about personal-wise. It [stinks]. It’s sad.”

Ovechkin has seen almost all his teammates from Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup championship team move on. Ovechkin and Tom Wilson were the only players from that team left on the Capitals plane that traveled to face the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET; ABC, SN1, TVAS).

And Ovechkin, the League record holder with 921 career goals who has played his entire NHL career with Washington, could be the next to go.

The 40-year-old left wing is in the final season of the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed in 2021 and has yet to decide whether he will continue playing in the NHL beyond this season. Ovechkin told NHL.com on Feb. 19 that his decision “probably” will wait until after the season.

Whether the late-night trade of Carlson, one of his closest friends after 17 seasons together, impacts that decision and its timing remains to be seen.

“I don’t know,” Ovechkin said. “I’m still here, so we’ll see. We’ll see what’s going to happen, but, yeah, it’s a hard one.”

From the Capitals perspective, general manager Chris Patrick said trading Carlson before the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline on Friday did not change their approach to Ovechkin’s future. The decision remains up to him.

“Alex and I will just talk about what happened and he'll be able to vent if he wants to vent,” Patrick said.  “I have no sense on what he's feeling. The great thing about Alex is he's pretty singularly focused on his team, on his teammates, on playing games and on trying to win, and that's all he's been doing.”

Still, Carlson’s departure was the latest signal that we are near the end of the Ovechkin era (2005-present), which has included 16 Stanley Cup Playoff appearances, 11 division titles, and three Presidents’ Trophy wins (first in the NHL in points during regular season) in addition to the 2018 Stanley Cup win.

The Capitals (31-25-7) still have a chance to make the playoffs this season, trailing the Bruins (34-22-5) by four points for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference with 19 games remaining, including their head-to-head meeting in Boston on Saturday and another in Washington on March 14.

But it’s clear that Washington is looking more than ever to the future, and life after Ovechkin. Trading Carlson (17 seasons) after dealing Nic Dowd (eight seasons) to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, removed two of the four longest-tenured players on the Capitals roster, leaving Ovechkin (21 seasons) and Wilson (13 seasons).

For Carlson, a 36-year-old who can become an unrestricted free agent after this season, the Capitals received a conditional first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. For Dowd, a 35-year-old who is signed for one more season, Washington received goalie prospect Jesper Vikman, a second-round pick in the 2029 NHL Draft and a third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

“They're great players, and they're going to do great where they've gone,” Patrick said of Carlson and Dowd. “But at the end of the day, they're in their mid-30s and our team is starting to have some younger guys step up, and at some point, you need to pass the torch a little bit. So, this allowed us to get some good assets for some players that, realistically, in four years from now probably aren't on our team.”

Patrick spent most of Friday trying to use some of those assets to acquire an established player under contract beyond this season that could help immediately. Patrick has talked since the end of last season about adding a wing to play on one of the top two lines, but he said the players the Capitals pursued before the trade deadline, “ended up not moving.”

So, that pursuit will have to wait until the offseason.

The Capitals did make two depth trades Friday. They used a fourth-round pick in the 2026 draft (previously acquired from the Golden Knights) to acquire defenseman Timothy Liljegren, a potential unrestricted free agent after this season, from the San Jose Sharks, and acquired forward David Kampf from the Vancouver Canucks for a sixth-round pick in the 2026 draft.

The Capitals hope Liljegren and Kampf can help during the stretch run. Defenseman Cole Hutson, a second-round pick (No. 43) in the 2024 NHL Draft who is one of their top prospects, could also join them after completing his sophomore season at Boston University.

It might take some time, though, for the Capitals to get over the emotional blow of losing Carlson.

“It's on the whole group to understand that today [stinks]. It's brutal,” Wilson said. “I'm sure there's some guys that want to cry. That's the reality of it. Today you can cry, and tomorrow you’ve got to wake up and be a big boy and go out and play hockey.”

Ovechkin called Carlson, “obviously the best defenseman in this franchise’s whole history.” His No. 74 will likely be retired by the Capitals someday.

But in addition to being Washington’s all-time leader among defensemen in goals (166), assists (605), points (771) and games (1,143) during his 17 seasons, Carlson was a valued leader in their locker room who served as an alternate captain.

Ovechkin and Carlson went through the tough times of falling short in the playoffs and the ecstasy of the 2018 Stanley Cup win. Carlson fittingly assisted on Ovechkin’s 894th goal, which tied Wayne Gretzky’s NHL record, against the Chicago Blackhawks on April 4 of last season, and was on the ice when Ovechkin scored his record-breaking 895th two days later against the New York Islanders.

“We’ve been together since his Day 1 on Caps and we’re growing up together as a person, families,” Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin had previously seen Nicklas Backstrom and T.J. Oshie, also franchise cornerstones, move on. Backstrom’s Capitals career effectively ended eight games into the 2023-24 season because of recurring hip issues, though his contract ran through the end of last season. Oshie similarly didn’t play last season because of recurring back issues and announced his retirement when his contract expired after it was over.

Ovechkin leads Washington with 24 goals and 50 points in 63 games this season, so the page hasn’t turned on his career, yet. That inevitability feels much closer now, though, with Carlson joining Backstrom and Oshie in the former Capitals category.

“These are the pillars of this team and this organization, the 2018 team,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “So, it's just anytime one of them no longer is playing for the organization, it's a sad time. So, ‘O’ and, ‘Willie’ are the two remaining from the 2018 team, and hopefully, for a long time to come. But, we don’t know.

“‘O’ hasn't made a decision, yet.”