The Washington Capitals gave major insight into what their Opening Night roster will look like after putting goaltender Hunter Shepard on NHL waivers at 2 pm. Sunday marked the final day a team could put a player on waivers before every team’s Opening Night 23-man roster must be set and filed by 5 pm on Monday.
With their exclusion from the waiver wire, Dylan McIlrath, Alex Alexeyev, and Sonny Milano have all made the Capitals, unless something surprising happens like a trade.
The Capitals are now down to three healthy players — forwards Jakub Vrana, Ivan Miroshnichenko, and Andrew Cristall — with only one roster spot remaining.
Jakub Vrana
Vrana is the lone player among the three at camp on a professional tryout agreement, meaning he does not have a guaranteed contract for the 2024-25 season. The 28-year-old winger was given four preseason games to try and earn a deal. Among the team’s forwards, he finished as the leader in shots (11), individual shot attempts (18), and individual scoring chances (12). He also recorded two points (1g, 1a) and drew a penalty.
“[His speed] is his biggest asset,” Carbery said last week. “A couple times tonight, he almost got in. He got the half breakaway on his backhand and got an okay chance on that. That’s probably the most important (part) of his game, is his speed and ability to find space in behind defenders and create offense off it.”
Washington dominated play at five-on-five with Vrana on the ice. In his minutes, they’ve seen 58.5 percent of the shot attempts, 59.9 percent of the expected goals, and 62.3 percent of the scoring chances. For a team that struggled to score and generate offense last season, Vrana could bring much-needed dynamism to the Caps.
Ivan Miroshnichenko
Miroshnichenko has the most flexibility as the 20-year-old Russian is still on his entry-level contract. He can freely move between the Hershey Bears and Washington without the worry of waivers. Miro had the quietest preseason of the three contenders and was chastised by Carbery for his decision-making in his last game.
“I didn’t like the goal we gave up in the third period,” Carbery said. “They were cheating a little bit. They were hoping that Vrana was going to chip a puck. Miro and Sgarbs go on the offensive side, and next thing you know, it’s a 3-2 game, building comes alive, and here we go.
“It’s tough. I understand what they’re thinking is they’re trying to read a situation and score a goal because they think that’s going to help them make a hockey team. And as hard as it is mentally, this is the pro maturation in that situation. We don’t need any more goals. We need right reads. We need to be better there.”
Miroshnichenko finished the preseason with two points (1g, 1a), firing eight shots on goal and drawing three penalties. The 2022 first-round draft selection recorded six points (2g, 4a) in 21 games for the Capitals last year.
With only a spot open on the third line where minutes can be sparse, the Capitals could view a return to Hershey for Miroshnichenko as the best move. The young sniper could continue to grow his role and become a dominant player for the AHL team. The Capitals likely have Miroshnichenko pegged in their top-six in the future, but still need him to evolve his game away from the puck.
Andrew Cristall
While Cristall had the strongest camp of the three wingers, tying for the team’s preseason lead in scoring with three points (2g, 1a), his inclusion on the roster is now the unlikeliest due to the salary cap. To optimally take advantage of the LTIR savings from both TJ Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom, the Capitals will want to submit a final roster that is less than $9.2 million (Backstrom’s AAV) over the cap.
To place Oshie on LTIR, the Capitals need to have a roster spot open for the veteran forward on Monday. Hendrix Lapierre will likely be sent to Hershey in a paper move and then be recalled when Oshie is put on LTIR. Cristall’s salary ($873,333) can’t be buried in the AHL, making it impossible for Washington to be cap-compliant unless they make a trade before the deadline. Washington does not need to do the same with Nicklas Backstrom because they utilized offseason LTIR for the veteran Swede. That means Backstrom will already be included on LTIR when they submit their final roster.
Head coach Spencer Carbery included Cristall in the club’s lineup for their final preseason game against the Boston Bruins on Saturday. Cristall did not get on the scoresheet but still impressed and validated Carbery’s decision to play him for the fourth time this fall.
“I thought he was solid again tonight,” Carbery said postgame. “Felt like it was very similar to the way that he’s looked all camp. There’s some things that for being a smaller guy, bumped off the puck a little bit, some puck battle stuff. But then you see the breakaway. Had another good chance in the first period. So, he does a lot of good things, and he’s around the puck, so he’s earned and proven that he deserves to be here right until the bitter end.”
Don Fishman, the Capitals’ big-brained cap expert, clearly has his work cut out for him as the Capitals could have several moves up their sleeves to save money ahead of Saturday’s home opener.
While the team’s game roster on Saturday could be different, this is the roster the Capitals are likely to submit to the NHL on Monday.
Capitals’ projected Opening Night roster
Forwards
Alex Ovechkin
Pierre-Luc Dubois
Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane
Dylan Strome
Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael
Sonny Milano
Brandon Duhaime
Nic Dowd
Taylor Raddysh
TJ Oshie to LTIR (Hendrix Lapierre papered to Hershey)
Jakub Vrana/Ivan Miroshnichenko/Andrew Cristall
Defensemen
John Carlson
Matt Roy
Jakob Chychrun
Rasmus Sandin
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary
Alex Alexeyev
Dylan McIlrath
Goaltenders
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
