the toronto trade sucks. you didnt get half of what carlsons worth

TOR takes that in a second. Zaitsev is on a bad contract. Caps could do much better.

Leafs say yes in a heart beat!

How is he on a bad contract? He's a top 4 D being paid top 4 money.
With that said I don't think that's enough for Carlson either but it's pretty close

Zaitsev plays similar minutes to Carlson, with similar corsi, better plus/minus, tougher zone starts. He's more like another Niskanen or Alzner on paper (although hopefully not an Alzner on the ice)?

https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/z/zaitsni01.html

https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/c/carlsjo01.html

Carlson is nearly unique in his combination of eating minutes, playing slightly more defensive zone time than offensive, and scoring among the top thirty defensemen in the league every year.

No one player could replace him if the Caps can't re-sign him. Zaitsev replaces his minutes with even better defense. Bowey grows into his offensive role on the power play point, with Zaitsev getting an audition there, too.

Before this trade is announced, Bowey and Djoos are both invited to sign five year extensions at 2M cap hits.

Then the Caps stop worrying about defense, and draft a bunch of forwards this summer.

I'd love to hear an offer that better fills the Caps' need for a defenseman in his prime who can play 23 minutes per game, starts a majority of shifts in the defensive zone, and has a corsi that's significantly higher than his offensive zone starts percentage.

Carlson is also one of the best in the business at power plays, but he learned some of that from guys like Ovechkin, Backstrom, Oshie.. they're all still around to teach Bowey or Zaitsev a few tricks, assuming Niskanen is still playing all the penalty kills on this team, and doesn't go back to playing all the power plays like he did that year in Pittsburgh when everybody else got injured and he got fifty points and signed his massive contract with Washington.

If Toronto wants to sweeten this deal, it's probably at the prospect level. I don't see Washington opening up salary cap space for anyone else they might care to part with, and a top four defenseman, for five years, seems like a pretty good rental price for even a Norris candidate defenseman for a couple months.

Obviously the Caps would rather keep Carlson, but if they haven't signed him yet, I'm certainly open to suggestions.