Can John Carlson Steal A Spot?

 All you have to do to earn a spot on defense is out-play John Carlson.

If you can’t do that, he just might steal your spot.

Born in Natick, Massachusetts, but raised in New Jersey, John Carlson is making it very hard for Bruce Boudreau to send him back to the Hershey Bears.

Carlson, the Washington Capitals 1^st Round choice(27^th Overall) in 2008 and the OHL’s second leading scorer among defenseman in 2008-09, has continued to impress the Capitals coaching staff through rookie and into training camp. So much so, that he has been continuously singled out by the coach for his hard work and consistently strong efforts.

John, a 6’3”, 208lb. left handed shooter, spent the majority of the 2008-09 year under the guidance of former Cap legend, Dale Hunter, head coach of the London Knights.

Improving by leaps and bounds, Carlson exploded into an offensive dynamo thanks to Hunter’s systems in London, scoring 16 goals and 60 assists in 59 games for the Knights.

Spending time on the power play with skilled players like John Tavares(Islanders-1^st Overall ‘09) and Nazim Kadri(Leafs-7^th Overall ‘09) helped Carlson develop a skilful transition game and an excellent vision on the ice. John won numerous team awards<b><i>*(see list at bottom)</b></i> with the Knights for his regular season performance and followed it up with another 22 points(7g-15a) in 14 playoff games before being eliminated. Following the Knights elimination from the OHL playoffs in 2009, Carlson was immediately called up to the Bears where he joined Hershey on their way to their 10^th Calder Cup title. John played in 16 playoff games for the Bears, registering a goal and 2 assists in his first taste of professional action.

To say the least, everyone has been impressed by Carlson’s progression over the last season and many in Washington believe they have a top 2 defender in the making.

Considering his continued growth and progress, one has to wonder how long it will take before John breaks onto the Capitals blue line.

For the time being the idea is that Carlson is likely to be the last cut from the Capitals training camp and as a result will start the season as one of the top 2 defenseman in Hershey. Considering he only has one season of OHL experience and but 16 games played at the AHL level, it’s safe to say that he could use some more seasoning in the A before making the jump to NHL.

But what if Carlson continues to out-play some of the other defenseman in camp this September? Is it possible that Carlson could displace someone on the Caps blue line?

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