Still too much for Carlson, and hard pass on Hartnell (would rather develop Nathan Walker). I wish that Hjalmarsson trade was enough to land him, but it is not. Plus the Caps NEED Jay Beagle.

Again, for the people in the back, a partial list of offensive defensemen John Carlson is currently outscoring: https://www.thesportster.com/hockey/top-15-highest-paid-defenseman-for-the-2015-2016-season/

If you drop Hartnell, like NM71 says, you've got 9.2 million to match offers on Carlson.

If you don't want Carlson, why not trade him for someone who fits long term?

Got news for you? You might think that it's too much for John Carlson and maybe it is. But on the open market Carlson easily gets $7 million to possibly $7.5 million per and maybe even more.

Pass on Hartnell and Chiasson. We have young better players.

I'm not paying that much for Hjalm. Why are you guys obsessed with a slow, defensive dman that will be here for 1.5 seasons? Hard pass. We need to use Grubey for picks.

$6.5M x 6 years is the max I would award Carlson. This is his first year in the top ranks in ice time. He gets a good share of assists, but he's not a goal-scoring offensive defenseman and he makes a TON of mistakes. I wish there was a big data analytics thingy that calculated how many player mistakes end up in a goal scored by the opposition. Because I would say that well over 50% of Carlson's boneheaded errors end up behind Holts and Grubi.

But alas...the Caps will do the exact wrong thing here...whatever that is they will figure it out, their leadership always finds new ways to handcuff the team and ensure the most marginal amount of success to keep butts in seats and revenues coming in.