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The Washington Capitals have re-signed John Carlson to a $64 million Womens Claude Giroux Jersey , eight-year contract that allows the Stanley Cup champions to keep the do-it-all defenseman.Carlson will count $8 million against the salary cap through the 2026-27 season. General manager Brian MacLellan announced the deal Sunday.”John has been an exceptional and consistent player for our franchise and has blossomed into being one of the top defensemen in the NHL,” MacLellan said. ”Defenseman like John are a rare commodity in our League and, at 28 years of age, we feel he is just entering his prime. As a right-handed defenseman, John plays in all key situations and has contributed greatly to our team’s success on the special teams. We are pleased for both parties to have come to an agreement.”That’s not necessary for the 28-year-old who has made the Washington area his home and wanted to stay if there was a fit. The Capitals got the cap space necessary to re-sign Carlson by trading veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik and backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer on Friday night at the NHL draft.Carlson outperformed his last deal that paid him just under $4 million a season and was at his best in a contract year. He led all defensemen with 68 points in the regular season and 20 in the playoffs to help Washington win the Metropolitan Division and then the Stanley Cup.The contract makes Carlson the second-highest-paid player on the Capitals behind Alex Ovechkin.Carlson averaged about 25 minutes a game all season, stepping up early when top-pairing defenseman Matt Niskanen missed time with injury and playing an important role on the power play and penalty kill on the Cup run.”His value is immense,” goaltender Braden Holtby said. ”You can see that, how much he meant to our team in this run. As far as growth, I think he’s grown steadily but I think he’s been pretty good for a long time. He’s been really good for a long time. I think this year it just showed through a bit more because we just forced him to play more.”Carlson has been a mainstay on the Capitals’ blue line since 2010-11. The 2008 first-round pick has 333 points in 608 regular-season games and 55 points in 100 playoff games.”I’ve always thought he was one of the better defensemen that I’ve ever played with,” winger T.J. Oshie said. ”This year, he elevated that quite a bit. In my eyes, he’s got to be a top-three or top-five defenseman in the league. You see what he does- he doesn’t do a lot of things that are really flashy http://www.flyersshoponline.com/authentic-ivan-provorov-jersey , so maybe he doesn’t get the highlight-reel things that other guys do, but defensively, he rarely ever gets beat.”Re-signing Carlson was just the first move on MacLellan’s summer checklist. He’s attempting to re-sign trade-deadline pickup Michal Kempny before Carlson’s defense partner can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, and he needs to negotiate new contracts for restricted free agent forwards Tom Wilson and Devante Smith-Pelly.”We’re trying to sign Kempny,” MacLellan said Friday. ”We’re trying to sign Wilson as an RFA and then make some decisions after that.”There’s also the matter of replacing Barry Trotz as coach after he resigned and joined the New York Islanders. Associate coach Todd Reirden, who was a finalist for the Flames’ head job two years ago, is the heavy front-runner, though MacLellan wanted to sit down and formally interview him this week first.”I think you still need to go through an interview process and ask the right questions,” MacLellan said. ”I just want to clarify on what he’s thinking system-wise and how he’s going to handle certain players.”It helps his case that Reirden coached the defenseman and had a hand in the development of Carlson, Niskanen, Kempny and Dmitry Orlov.”The players all know him, they’re comfortable with him Jakub Voracek Jersey Kids ,” MacLellan said. ”He’ll have a good feel for personalities, how to motivate people and so forth.”— GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Arizona Coyotes still are not a .500 team. They are still the lowest-scoring team in the NHL.But they are not the team they were a season ago, and that could be a problem for the busy and beaten-up Vancouver Canucks when the teams meet Thursday at Gila River Arena.The Canucks overcame a number of injuries to beat the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in a shootout at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday night. Bo Horvat scored two goals while Jacob Markstrom made 33 saves and stopped all four Vegas attempts in the shootout. Markus Granlund was the only player to score in the four-round shootout.Article continues below ...Vancouver rebounded from a 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals on Monday. Canucks injuries sustained by defensemen Christopher Tanev and Alexander Edler and forward Sven Baertschi in that game sidelined them for Wednesday’s contest. The Canucks already were playing without injured top-line center Elias Pettersson (concussion), who has missed the last five games, and right wing Brock Boeser (groin).With all those injuries, the Canucks must turn around and play another game in less than 24 hours. There is a slight chance Pettersson could return, although he might wait until the Canucks open a five-game homestand Saturday. He has five goals and three assists in five games.The Coyotes begin a five-game homestand at Gila River Arena against the Canucks, and, despite their 3-5 record, they are looking like a considerably improved team from a season ago.Last season, the Coyotes didn’t post a win until Oct. 30 — they started 0-10-1 — and didn’t claim their third victory until Nov. 16 Youth Jordan Weal Jersey , when they were 3-15-3 record. They never got close to .500 all season, despite going 20-14-7 in the second half of the season.Now, they are coming off a 2-2 road trip that ended with a 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, a win keyed by Christian Fischer’s first career hat trick. They also beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 during the trip, and coach Rick Tocchet was encouraged by his team’s play during a 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.Maybe the Coyotes still aren’t quite where Tocchet would like them to be — they have scored an NHL-low 14 goals in eight games — but they’re much better off than they were last October, when their season was effectively over by Halloween.While they are more competitive, the Coyotes would like to start winning at home — and start scoring some goals. They have been shut out in both of their home games to date, a 1-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Oct. 6 and a 3-0 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Oct. 13.The return of projected top line center Alex Galchenyuk could help Arizona. He played Tuesday for the first time this season after being out with a lower-body injury that occurred in the Coyotes’ first preseason game. He missed seven games, but Tocchet liked what he saw in Galchenyuk’s return.“I think Alex was fine,” Tocchet said. “I think that line was struggling a little bit on certain things. They were OK, they were trying to get some chemistry. Alex had surgery a month ago and rehab, and he’ll be fine. I think there’s some chemistry there.”Galchenyuk was the center on a line that had Lawson Crouse at left wing and Clayton Keller at right wing.“It took me awhile to get the rhythm a little bit. With every shift I take Scott Laughton Jersey , I’ll get better and better,” Galchenyuk said. “I tried to stay calm as I could even though there was a lot of excitement. … You can’t wait to get out there and play with the guys.”Coyotes starting goalie Antti Raanta sat out Tuesday with flu-like symptoms and could return, although backup Darcy Kuemper played well in his absence, allowing a goal in the first minute of the game but none after that. He made 35 saves.“When they (his teammates) are playing like that, it makes it a lot easier,” Kuemper said. “I was trying to do my part, and that was our whole mindset as a team. Everybody do their job.”The Canucks and Coyotes split four games last season, all of which were played in the final six weeks of the season.