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Washington Capitals: How did he get here – John Carlson

By Richard Ball

TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 29: Washington Capitals Defenceman John Carlson (74) celebrates a first period goal during the regular season NHL game between the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs on October 29, 2019 at Scotiabank Arena (Photo by Gerry Angus/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 29: Washington Capitals Defenceman John Carlson (74) celebrates a first period goal during the regular season NHL game between the Washington Capitals and Toronto Maple Leafs on October 29, 2019 at Scotiabank Arena (Photo by Gerry Angus/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson is enjoying the best season of his career. How did the Caps acquire their number one defenseman?

Washington Capitals blueliner John Carlson has been lighting up the league this year. At one point in October, he was leading the NHL in scoring. Caps fans know that Washington drafted Carlson in the first round of the 2008 NHL draft with the 27th pick.

When you look closer at the 2008 draft, the Caps made two trades involving first-round picks that year. The Caps originally had the 23rd overall pick but they traded it along with the 54th pick to New Jersey for the 21st overall pick.

Washington drafted Anton Gustafsson, son of former Cap Bengt-Ake Gustafsson. The younger Gustafsson would never play a game in the NHL and is currently playing in the Swiss league.

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While that trade was a dud, the Caps made a second trade that day. This trade was with the Philadelphia Flyers and it turned out quite well for the good guys.

The Caps General Manager at the time was George McPhee. His Flyers counterpart was Paul Holmgren.

They both played in the NHL with a small overlap in their careers but they never played against each other. If they had, they might have dropped the gloves as both had some pugnacious tendencies.

On June 20, 2008, the Caps traded defenseman Steve Eminger and a third-round pick to the Flyers for the 27th pick in the draft. Washington had drafted Eminger with their original pick, the 12th overall, in the 2002 draft.

Eminger played 192 unremarkable games for Washington. In the 2007-08 season, he played only 20 regular season games for the Caps and was a frequent healthy scratch.

During the Stanley Cup playoffs that year, the Caps blue line was running thin as a result of injuries and Eminger played five playoff games. Those games turned out to be an audition for the rest of the league.

It is amazing that McPhee was able to trade Eminger who would easily be classed as a declining asset for Washington. The fact that he was able to get a first-round pick in return has to be considered a steal.

Eminger would play twelve games for the Flyers before they traded him to Tampa Bay. The Flyers drafted a goalie with the third-round pick who never played a game in the NHL.

By now, it is no secret that Caps used the Flyers’ pick to select Carlson. Maybe it was luck that they picked him but Carlson’s contributions to the Caps success makes this one of the most lopsided trades in Caps history.

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Adding insult to injury, the Caps drafted a goalie named Braden Holtby nine picks after the Flyers used the pick they acquired from Washington to draft a goalie. McPhee, now the Vegas Golden Knights President, likely needs to keep his head up at League meetings when he bumps into Holmgren, now a Flyers Senior Adviser, as Holmgren might still be licking his wounds from the fleecing.

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