Top 3 players that should be traded this offseason

#2 John Carlson

This could be another defenseman for forward swap. Like Nick Jensen, I’m not trying to deal John Carlson because he’s bad. Rather to unload the contract and get extra money to get an even better top six forward.

This would also allow both Joel Edmundson, who was acquired in a trade for draft picks with the Montreal Canadiens, and Alex Alexeyev, who was just re upped along with RFA Martin Fehervary, a chance to both be in the lineup.

The Caps would miss Carlson’s offense for sure. They won’t miss his turnovers and inability to get back on defense. But not all defenseman have two way games. If you’re good at offense you might not be good on defense and vice versa.

Now the goal when making a deal when involving John Carlson is to make the only unattractive thing his $8 million cap hit. As long as they don’t tell the other team about his defensive deficiencies and make his offense look sexy, they should get a deal done.