Caps Make Final Cuts

Hours after their preseason finale on Saturday against Columbus, the Caps convened for a Sunday morning practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex. But before that practice got underway, Caps coach Peter Laviolette had to deliver bad news to a quartet of young players who were hopeful of landing a roster berth in what was a highly spirited and intense battle for roster berths and lineup spots.

Defenseman Lucas Johansen and forwards Henrik Borgstrom, Axel-Jonsson Fjallby and Brett Leason were placed on waivers on Sunday for the purpose of being loaned to AHL Hershey. The players are officially on waivers as of 2 p.m. on Sunday, and they will learn whether they've cleared or not and can report to Hershey at 2 p.m. on Monday.
Washington's training camp roster this fall was as deep as any in recent memory, featuring two dozen forwards and 10 defensemen who played in the NHL last season. In addition to the Capitals' six preseason games, there were a series of scrimmages that stretched through the first half of camp that also proved invaluable both for players seeking to make an impression and for the coaches and hockey operations personnel evaluating them.
Before Sunday's practice, Laviolette had to break the news to the aforementioned quartet in his office at MedStar.
"I don't take it lightly," says Laviolette. "For a guy who was sent down every year, I understand exactly what they're going through. Sometimes you don't understand, but I do. The conversations are real and emotions are real, and I understand that. Nowadays, for the most part, everybody works really hard to try and attain their goal, so when you're close, you can feel that. That's real."
Johansen was Washington's first-round pick (28th overall) in the 2016 NHL Draft. Injuries and the pandemic certainly put a damper on his development in recent seasons, but he came into camp on the heels of his best pro campaign in 2021-22, a season in which he finally made his long-awaited NHL debut in Detroit, last Dec. 31.
The Caps opted to go with seven defensemen and 14 forwards at season's outset, and they've chosen to go with veteran Matt Irwin as their seventh defenseman to start the season, knowing that they've got another former first-rounder rehabbing from offseason surgery in Alex Alexeyev. Whenever Alexeyev is ready to come off injured reserve, he will have to be kept on the varsity roster too, as he is no longer waiver-exempt.
Alexeyev was Washington's first-round choice (31st overall) in the 2018 NHL Draft; he and Johansen are the only two defensemen the Capitals have chosen in the first round since they hit a home run with John Carlson at No. 27 overall in the 2008 Draft.
Borgstrom is also a former first-rounder, chosen at No. 23 overall by Florida in 2016. The Caps signed him as an unrestricted free agent over the summer.
Jonsson-Fjallby is a Washington fifth-rounder (147th overall) from the 2016 Draft; he didn't clear waivers after last year's Caps camp, getting claimed by Buffalo. But Washington was able to reclaim Jonsson-Fjallby from the Sabres a week later, and he got into 23 games with the Caps last season, totaling two goals and four points.
Leason was Washington's second-round choice (56th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft. He was the first player of many whom the Caps recalled from Hershey last season; Leason arrived in late October after T.J. Oshie suffered an early season injury in a game against Detroit. Leason played more games (36) in Washington last season than he played in Hershey (31).
Making an NHL opening night roster is a dream of every young player, and many of the young players currently trying to break through around the League have had their development interrupted and/or stalled somewhat by the pandemic and the fact that the AHL did not conduct the Calder Cup playoffs in 2020 or in 2021.
But Laviolette doesn't believe that the players whose careers have been affected by COVID or by lack of an AHL postseason have suffered by missing out on those experiences and the evaluation of their performance that comes with them.
"In don't think so," says the Caps' bench boss. "Sometimes you can watch the American Hockey League or the AHL playoffs, or somebody who might be out for two weeks with COVID. I'm not sure if that affects somebody who was here in training camp, who played games for us last year regardless, because it could have been regular season even they don't get playoffs. They could have been healthy at some point even though maybe they did have COVID.
"They've been here, we've done an evaluation on them, they trained this summer, they came into training camp and scrimmaged almost every day, or they played in exhibition games for us. I feel like you get a pretty good evaluation in your knowledge of what you already knew about the player, and then your evaluation of training camp. I feel like that's a pretty good read."
"That's part of the conversations that went on [this morning]," says Laviolette. These are obviously the last guys that we talked to, that are pending waivers. And so obviously, they did good things in camp or they've done good things for us last year, and they're an important piece to this organization. And sometimes that message gets muddled out a little bit because of the day and how they're feeling, but they truly are [valued], as they know from last year and the recalls and how much I counted on them to contribute. They are an important piece, it is an extension of our team."
As of Sunday afternoon, this is the Caps' 23-man active roster:
Goaltenders (2): 35-Darcy Kuemper, 79-Charlie Lindgren
Defensemen (7):74-John Carlson, 42-Martin Fehervary, 56-Erik Gustafsson, 52-Matt Irwin, 3-Nick Jensen, 9-Dmitry Orlov, 57-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Forwards (14):28-Connor Brown, 26-Nic Dowd, 20-Lars Eller, 21-Garnet Hathaway, 90-Marcus Johansson, 92-Evgeny Kuznetsov, 39-Anthony Mantha, 24-Connor McMichael, 77-T.J. Oshie, 8-Alex Ovechkin, 59-Aliaksei Protas, 73-Conor Sheary, 91-Joe Snively, 17-Dylan Strome