Saturday, the Washington Capitals announced a five-year contract extension for Lars Eller. That leaves John Carlson as the only big pending unrestricted free-agent left to re-sign.
General manager Brian MacLellan’s has had a tendency to hand out big contract extensions (TJ Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Dmitry Orlov), and now he’s looking to do the same with Carly.
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Meeting with the media following the Capitals’ practice at Kettler, GMBM was asked about the team’s progress in negotiations with Carlson.
“I’m not going to comment on any negotiations, but we’re gonna do everything we can to bring him back,” MacLellan said. “I mean, we’ve had talks with his people.”
When asked about his optimism for a deal before the season is over, he said, “I don’t know. I mean, you could have asked me three weeks ago on Lars and I would have said maybe, you know? Sometimes it comes together, sometimes it doesn’t.”
MacLellan also commented that he expects the salary cap to rise to $79 million. That would be a $4 million increase from this season’s cap of $75 million.
Over the last several months, MacLellan has been adamant that Carlson is the team’s top priority to bring back. Additionally, TSN insider Bob McKenzie reported in December that Washington and the Carlson camp would discuss the parameters of a possible deal before the holidays. Despite that, there seems to be no indication that a deal is anywhere close to being done. We may just have to wait until after the season for this one.
