The Washington Capitals are still unsure about TJ Oshie’s health status just over two weeks from the opening of 2024 Training Camp.
Oshie has been dealing with recurring back issues for much of the past two seasons, causing him to stay out of the team’s lineup for multiple, extended stretches of time. The 37-year-old winger revealed last April that he would step away from the game if he couldn’t find “an answer and a fix” to his problems and there has been no concrete update on his prognosis this summer.
“It’s still kind of up in the air,” Capitals general manager Chris Patrick recently told NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti. “I think training camp is kind of our timeline to see where he’s at.”
The lone update Oshie gave this offseason came off pessimistic in terms of a return. In an interview with NHL Network, Oshie revealed that he and his medical team have continued to search for different or more creative treatment options, but haven’t advanced much further than where he was at during the year, where at his worst, he was “literally on the floor peeing in water bottles.”
“I think right now still reaching out to a number of specialists just trying to figure out if there’s some type of intervention we can do surgically, if there’s a certain type of training, or maybe something that we haven’t thought of,” Oshie said then. “The list is running out of things we’ve tried.”
Oshie also returned to the golf course multiple times this summer. The veteran forward previously told Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir that he was giving up golf recreationally so that he could remain as healthy as possible for the rest of his hockey career.
Oshie has missed 92 games due to injury over the last three seasons, suiting up in 154 of 246 possible games.
Between his golfing and Washington’s aggressive offseason behavior, the Capitals and Oshie may have already unofficially moved on. Washington’s top-nine winger positions appear to be filled by Alex Ovechkin, Andrew Mangiapane, Tom Wilson, Connor McMichael, Aliaksei Protas, and Sonny Milano.
The Capitals will also have wingers like Jakub Vrana, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Pierrick Dubé, and Ethen Frank in camp competing for a coveted roster spot.
“If TJ Oshie can play and come to camp, we know what that means to our team,” head coach Spencer Carbery said. “It’s a huge boost not only on the ice, but off the ice everybody knows how much he means to this organization and what he’s able to bring for us as a team, and he showed that last year. Then, if he’s not able to play, it’s going to be some more opportunity [for others].”
Washington is currently $9.45 million over the salary cap with 22 out of 23 roster spots filled and before accounting for players set to start the year on LTIR. Nicklas Backstrom’s $9.2 million cap hit will cover most of that space, making an Oshie return possible if Patrick gets creative to free up an additional $245k.
Oshie is still currently on the team’s active roster. He has played the last nine seasons with the Capitals. As things currently stand, he sits at 1,010 total NHL games played and is seven apples away from hitting 400 career assists and five points away from hitting 700.
