After he packed his gear and said goodbye to his Capitals teammates at Washington’s practice facility this month, Carl Hagelin emerged from the dressing room and leaned against a wall near the rink.
“I haven’t been on the ice yet,” he said, “but I'm thinking by the time July comes around, I want to skate really hard.”
Hagelin eventually nodded up at the industrial fluorescent lights that hung above him.
“It kind of messes the eye up a little bit,” he said, “but with a tinted visor, it feels a lot better.”
He remains almost defiantly positive in his outlook, refusing to listen to those who expected him to give up the game after suffering his catastrophic injuries over the past 13 months. Hagelin has instead been emboldened after doctors were able to save his right eye and after he watched Nicklas Backstrom become one of the rare professional athletes to return from a hip resurfacing this past season.
Hagelin has already built a respectable NHL career: The 34-year-old was once among the league’s fastest skaters, has logged more than 700 games in 11 seasons and won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Returning to the NHL with a permanently damaged eye and a metal hip would perhaps be his greatest accomplishment.
“My goal is to play again,” Hagelin said. “My hip needs to feel good, though, to do it. It kind of comes back to that. I need to get 2½ really good months on the ice skating … and at that point, if it feels good, I want to play in the NHL again.”
Hagelin hasn’t played in a game since he suffered his eye injury while battling for a puck during a practice in March 2022. A stick whacked him in the face and ruptured the choroid in the back of his left eye.
In the days after, doctors wondered whether they would have to remove the eye; they eventually salvaged it by restitching the pupil. He regained only partial vision in that eye. It no longer dilates, and Hagelin struggled with depth perception early in his rehabilitation. He started to work with Keith Smithson, an optometrist based in Reston who has helped Washington Nationals pitchers, to recalibrate his brain and learn how to compensate with the limitations of his vision. Even though he wasn’t cleared by the team, he returned day after day for rehabilitation, clawing for progress.
“He’s been in a tough position almost a year and a half,” captain Alex Ovechkin said, “but I never saw a guy who was [so] passionate about hockey. He came here every day working hard, give us the positive emotions.”
That would have been enough to jeopardize any NHL player’s future, but Hagelin was also dealing with perpetual pain from his hip, an ailment he first started feeling in 2020. Even as he recovered from his eye injury, he returned to training camp last year and felt discomfort in his hip.
“Like I had a knife going into my groin,” said Hagelin, who eventually underwent hip arthroscopy last September. “I think when I had the scope right away, they knew it wasn’t a home run. My hip was really messed up.”
When that procedure didn’t get him back on the ice, he chose to do what teammate and Swedish countryman Backstrom had done the year before — he got his hip resurfaced. Hagelin knew it would further jeopardize any chance at a return, but he was encouraged not only by Backstrom’s return from the operation but by others in the sports world who had done the same, including tennis star Andy Murray.
“It was interesting to watch the Andy Murray documentary; he’s back playing, running side to side … looking pretty good. And then Backy obviously getting 40 games this year. … I think players are ready and athletes are ready to put in the time nowadays to really get back at it,” Hagelin said. “I think it’s more that you’re at a point in your life where, when you’re older, some people just say, ‘Hey, it’s time to give up at this point.’ But obviously Backy is a great example.”
Said Backstrom: “He is one of those guys that works hard and is eager to get back out there.”
To do it, Hagelin will need to string together a few months of solid skating this summer before he regains his strength. Once that happens, he will sit down with his agent and see what his options are.
He’s clearly antsy to get back on the ice. Hagelin took part in the team’s official photo this month, getting dressed in his uniform for the first time all season. When the session was over and his teammates left the ice to get ready for practice, Hagelin remained by himself, taking a little twirl on his skates. It was the first time he had been on the ice since his hip surgery.
“I think I’ve always kind of lived in the moment. You know, bad things happen. I’m fortunate to be playing this sport,” he said. “I’ve always been positive and kind of see the bright side of things.”