Washington Capitals: Have We Seen The Best That John Carlson Has To Offer

At some point everybody sets a career high in goals and points.

Unfortunately, we cannot see the future, therefore we never have any idea if someone has in fact had the best season they ever will, at least in terms of production. That could be a question for Washington Capitals star defenseman John Carlson these days.

Carlson is now in his thirties and quickly coming to the end of his prime years. Thanks to the pandemic the NHL season will be starting much, much later than usual. You would have to think by time the season actually does start Carlson will have had his 31st birthday on the 10th of January. Again, just creeping towards the end of the prime years of an athlete and hockey player where most fans think you will have your best seasons.

Carlson is coming off back to back 70+ point seasons. That is a heck of an accomplishment for a defenseman these days. Nearly being a point per game player is a rare thing for defensemen now. Only the best of the best can do that. He was even over a point per game this past season playing in just 69 games while putting up 75 points.

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If Carlson had played an entire 82 game season he was on pace for around 89 points. Take a look at this list and see the names around the 88-92 points in an NHL season by a defenseman. The company he could have joined there is pretty incredible.

But was that it? Was that season Carlson’s career best? Will he be able to replicate that season? Or even better, surpass that season? He does still have a season or two in his prime left. But even if he doesn’t have a career best year in the next couple of seasons he could still end up having his best season outside of his prime years.

Out here on the west coast, I watch a lot of San Jose Sharks games. That means the ability to watch Brent Burns. Burns is on that list of highest scoring defensemen in a season having the highest point total by a defenseman in a long time. Burns put up 83 points in 2018-19. The last time a defenseman put up 83+ points in a season was 1995-96, that was Brian Leetch up in New York.

The reason I bring up Burns is because he did not score this many points at Carlson’s age. That season, which is Burn’s best to date, came in a season where he was 33-34. Older than most would assume a career year would come.

The aforementioned Leetch is also an interesting guy to look at. While his best year clearly came in 91-92 (he scored 102 points that year) he was able to show some late magic as well. In the season where he was 32-33 years old he was able to put up a season where he scored 79 points. That was the fourth best total of his career. All of the other great years of his career coming at least five years before.

Another one of the games all time greats had a career year well into his thirties. Maybe you have heard of this guy, Nicklas Lidstrom. His career high in points came the year after the lockout in 2005-06 where he scored 80 points. During that season Lidstrom was 35.

Now we should be careful here for several reasons really. One, we’re not comparing Carlson to these legends, particularly Leetch and Lidstrom. We’re not saying Carlson has a chance to be better than these guys when it’s all said and done and we’re not even saying his is on their level right now.

All we’re saying right now is while Carlson had a tremendous season this past year it doesn’t mean it will be his best. Carlson is a great defenseman, and great defensemen have been able to put up terrific seasons well into their thirties.

I know there had to be fans out there that thought this past season was Carlson’s best shot to win a Norris Trophy. Mostly due to his offensive production. Well, if those people are out there I would say hold that thought. It wouldn’t be the first time a defenseman won a Norris Trophy in his mid thirties if Carlson did it.

I believe the best of John Carlson is yet to come. If it’s anything much better than this past season then Capitals fans and the entire NHL is in for a show.