John Carlson to be game-time decision against Devils after missing morning skate with upper-body injury
The Washington Capitals have returned home from their week-long road trip to host the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena on Saturday night. They may have to do so without their top minutes-eating defenseman, John Carlson.
According to the Capitals, the 35-year-old defenseman is dealing with an upper-body injury. Carlson missed Saturday’s morning skate at MedStar Capitals Iceplex due to “maintenance” and will be a game-time decision for the matchup against the Devils.
John Carlson has an upper-body injury, per the Capitals. Missed skate this morning for maintenance and will be a game-time decision tonight.
— Katie Adler (@katieEadler) November 15, 2025
“Not overly concerned,” head coach Spencer Carbery said. “Missed skate this morning, so we’ll see how he is tonight.”
Carlson is currently on a five-game point streak, tallying an assist in 22:55 of total ice time against the Florida Panthers in the Capitals’ last outing. He is averaging 23:22 of ice time per game this season, which ranks first on the team, three seconds ahead of Jakob Chychrun (23:19).
The veteran blueliner is also the club’s overall top scorer from the backend, recording 14 points (4g, 10a) through the first 17 games of the 2025-26 campaign. Only forwards Dylan Strome (15) and Tom Wilson (17) have more points than Carlson.
Carbery has been playing Carlson on the Capitals’ top defense pairing next to Martin Fehervary. The Caps are carrying two extra defensemen with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Dylan McIlrath both taking the scratches skate on Saturday morning.
The Devils are facing some injury troubles of their own as star center Jack Hughes will likely be unavailable against the Capitals after suffering a “non-hockey, hand injury” earlier this week. Carbery noted that Hughes’ predicted absence has an effect on how the Capitals prepare for the game.
“It changes (our pre-scout) significantly,” he said. “I think that the team, the way that New Jersey plays, that doesn’t change a lot from what we’ll show our group and talk about and make sure they’re aware of. But there are individual tendencies that Jack Hughes has that we would show and make sure our players are aware of.
“Not that they need massive amounts of reminders of that. These guys are good enough and have very good memories of what elite, elite players look like, and feel like, and what they try to do on the ice, and why they’re successful. But we always try to show those in our pre-scouts. So anytime a guy like him — even Dougie Hamilton out of the lineup, that’ll change our pre-scout a little bit. And Hughes is off to a great start. I was watching some of the stuff this morning. And yeah, he’s a handful.”
The Devils currently lead the Eastern Conference with a 12-4-1 record and beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 in overtime in their last game.
