Under the radar - John Carlson

I've just finished writing a five-part article on every scouting department in the NHL. It was just an overview, but in the process I looked at the last four drafts for every NHL team. There were lots of nice little suprises. One is Washington defensman John Carlson. For some reason Carlson, a 6'3, 210-pound, smooth-skating dynamo fell all the way to 27th in the 2008 NHL draft. Perhaps he fell because he spent a couple of years in the relatively unknown USHL, but who really knows. All I know is that Carlson scored 76 points in 59 OHL games last season for London. He's big, mean, can skate and is vastly underrated much in the same way as Mike Green. Carlson is probably better than Green whose defensive responsibilities leave a lot to be desired. I write for so many sites, I neglect this blog, but for those of you who read it take note: John Carlson, not Erik Johnson is the next great American defenseman. He's not Brian Leetch and he's not Chris Chelios but he's somewhere in between.