The Washington Capitals placed goaltender Hunter Shepard on waivers, Sunday.
Shepard can be claimed by any team over the next 24 hours. If he’s passed over, he will be free to be assigned to the AHL’s Hershey Bears where he has been the team’s starting netminder for the past two seasons.
PuckPedia was the first to report the news.
The move was made ahead of NHL Opening Night rosters being set by 5 pm on Monday. Washington placed no other players on waivers, meaning Dylan McIlrath and Alex Alexeyev appear to have made the team. Sonny Milano, who was challenged by head coach Spencer Carbery for a slow start to the preseason, has also made the club.
Washington is now down to 25 healthy players ahead of Monday’s 5 pm roster submission deadline. The Capitals must trim two more players to reach the maximum of 23 on their roster. The final spot is down to Andrew Cristall, Ivan Miroshnichenko, or Jakub Vrana. Vrana could remain in limbo beyond Monday as he’s on a PTO.
It’s worth noting, after submitting their final roster on Monday to be cap compliant, the Capitals could tinker with their roster during the week ahead of their first game of the season on Saturday night against the New Jersey Devils.
Shepard, the organization’s number three goaltender, entered this year’s Training Camp on the heels of leading the Bears to back-to-back Calder Cup championships. He was named AHL playoff MVP in 2023 and won AHL Goaltender of the Year last season.
The 28-year-old backstop posted a 27-4-3 record with a 1.76 goals-against average, a .929 save percentage, and five shutouts with Hershey last year. He has four career NHL games under his belt and is 2-1-1 in those games with a 3.18 goals-against average and a .894 save percentage.
But the writing on the wall was that he would be headed back to the minors after the Capitals traded two draft picks to the Vegas Golden Knights for Logan Thompson during the offseason.
Hershey made their own moves earlier today. They sent five players from their Training Camp roster to the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays including Grant Cruikshank, Micah Miller, Justin Nachbaur, Tyler Weiss, and Hudson Thornton. Hershey currently has Clay Stevenson, Mitchell Gibson, and Garin Bjorklund occupying the team’s crease ahead of Shepard’s potential arrival.
