John Carlson On Pace To Easily Set A New Career High

John Carlson has been one of hockey’s best offensive defensemen for at least the last half decade now. Looking at his stats he started to really put up the points in the 2017-18 season. That year he scored a then career high 15 goals and 68 points. For the most part, since then, he hasn’t slowed down.

Since that 17-18 season Carlson leads all defensemen in scoring, and not really by a small margin either. In the 382 games he has played since then he has registered 342 points. The next closest total to him in 323 and that number belonging to Nashville’s Roman Josi. Third is Victor Hedman at 312, and that is the last of the guys over 300 points in that time frame.

Offensively it is really impressive what Carlson has been able to accomplish. You can say what you want about the shortcomings in his game. The hockey gods know I have. Every player has holes in their game. This guy is no different. Offensively there are very few who are better than number seventy-four on the Washington Capitals.

At some point those totals will start to drop. Carlson is currently 32-years-old, soon to be 33. Father Time’s clock is getting bigger and bigger in Carlson’s vision now. He is closer to the end than the beginning. He is on the back nine, not the front nine. Those and other sayings about time.

So far this season Carlson hasn’t seemed to care about being a little older. In his 32/33 age season he is on pace to have one of the better seasons of his career.

I would say he is unlikely to best his career high in points. He scored 75 points in 69 games during the COVID shortened 2019-20 season. A true bummer, we will never truly know what he could have gotten up to that year. He did put up 71 points in 78 games last season, so he could still set a career high in points. It’s just my opinion, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

He does have a clear chance to set a career high in goals, and the way he is going he could do that this season. The pace he is on he could end up smashing his career high as well.

We are 27 games into the Capitals season as I write this. Unfortunately for Washington and Carlson, he has missed some games this season with the top defenseman missing six games. In the 21 games he has played Carlson has scored 8 goals. His career high is 17, he set that mark just last year.

The pace that Carlson is on is very, very impressive. If he were to keep at this pace he could end up scoring around 28 goals at seasons end.

The fact that Carlson has never scored 20+ goals is actually a little surprising. It is a very real possibility he scores that amount this season, and frankly a lot more, and that is fantastic.

In doing so Carlson would pass a couple of defensemen on the Capitals all time list. He would pass Sergei Gonchar who scored 144 goals. He would also pass Kevin Hatcher at 149. Carlson would then be the highest scoring defenseman in Capitals history. As we speak he sits at 140 career goals.

You can already easily make the case that Carlson is the best defenseman in franchise history. You cannot argue he is the best offensive defenseman in team history. He has the numbers, and he has the longevity.

He may be getting just a little older now but I guess that does not matter to him yet. Because if he does not slow down this could be one heck of a season for John Carlson in the goal scoring department.