Back In Ohio – The Caps conclude the road portion of their 2025 preseason slate on Tuesday night in Columbus. Exactly one year ago tonight, the Caps also concluded the road portion of their preseason in the same Ohio city.
After tonight’s game, the Caps will return home to DC, which is typical for preseason games. Travel to and from exhibition games is typically done the same day of the game. But last fall, with a slew of newcomers on the roster, and with four days between that game and Columbus and their preseason finale against Boston in the District, the Caps opted to stay in Columbus for three nights, getting some practices in while also mixing in a team dinner and some team bonding activities.
In each of his first two training camps as Caps head coach, Spencer Carbery arranged for a short getaway late in training camp when the roster has typically been pared down to a number that starts with a “2.” During the 2023 training camp, the Caps took an early autumn foray to Eastern Maryland, spending a couple of days at a resort where both staff and players had their own highly memorable group dinners, and where they had a team golf tournament. On their way back home, the Caps made a stop in Easton, Md. to conduct a practice session.
This year’s training camp schedule wasn’t conducive to such an excursion, but Carbery reflected on the importance of last season’s three-day Columbus getaway, with the obvious benefit of hindsight.
“It's amazing you brought that up, because I literally looked at the calendar today,” says Carbery. “And I think, ‘One year ago today, we were in Columbus playing the same opponent.’ I was thinking about that this morning.
“Honestly, one of the major disappointments of our preseason schedule was the way that it played out with us having a lot of our off days – or non-game days – at the beginning of camp. It’s really difficult when your camp [roster] sits at 50 to do things like that; you'd rather [do so at] the tail end of camp, which we've been fortunate – the two years previous that I've been here – to have a few non-game days where we could do something like we did last year.
“And I thought it was amazing, with a lot of new faces on our team and in our organization; I thought that was an important part. But even for our overall team morale, of getting them together in a unique setting – not your own home city – and doing some team building stuff, and we had a guest speaker that came in and talked to the guys. And so it was a real, real beneficial few days.”
In The Middle Of It All – Tuesday’s preseason game is Washington’s fourth, and 19-year-old Ilya Protas is expected to be in the Caps’ lineup for the third time. The younger brother of Aliaksei Protas, Ilya was the Caps’ third-round choice (74th overall) in the 2024 NHL Draft, and he posted monster numbers (50 goals and 74 assists for 124 points in 61 games) as an 18-year-old for OHL Windsor last season.
Because he was drafted from a USHL team (Des Moines), Protas is eligible to play in the AHL as a 19-year-old this season, and he is expected to turn pro this season. But the Caps are taking a good, long look at the younger Protas. And they’ve been looking at him in the middle of the ice.
In his 2025 preseason debut last Thursday against Philadelphia, Ilya Protas centered for Matt Strome and Justin Sourdif. On Sunday in New Jersey, Protas filled in for Nic Dowd, centering for Brandon Duhaime and Sourdif. Tonight in Columbus, he pivots for Henrik Rybinski and Bogdan Trineyev.
Big brother Aliaksei was listed as a center in the Washington media guide – right from the year he was drafted through last season – though he has played primarily on the wing in the NHL with Washington. In his draft year of 2019, NHL Central Scouting listed him at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, and as a center. In his first Washington media guide in 2019-20, Aliaksei Protas was listed at 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds. Six years later, he is listed at 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds.
At last year’s NHL Draft, Central Scouting listed “Little Pro” (“Proquito,” if you will) as a left wing standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 198 pounds. Last season’s Washington media guide also listed Ilya Protas as a left wing, listing him at 6-foot-5 and 201 pounds. This year, the younger Protas is listed at 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds. And at 19, he may still be growing.
Although listed as a left wing, the Caps see the younger Protas as a centerman.
“I think that's his natural position,” says Carbery. “I know that with Big Pro, it was sort of talked about earlier in his career, too; I remember that in Hershey. I think Little Pro – more so than his older brother – is pretty much a staple centerman; he played all last year in Windsor down the middle ice, so that's where we're going to play him and try to play him.
“And him and his brother are such intelligent players, though; you never say never with moving to the wing and being versatile like that. I'll bet you Pro could play a game in the NHL – Big Pro – at center right now today, if I put him there, no problem. So we want [Ilya] to be a center. That's his natural position. We'll plan accordingly and put him in that spot as much as we can.”
Stats aren’t available from Ilya Protas’ first preseason game because it was played in an AHL rink without the capabilities of tracking the stats NHL buildings routinely produce. In Sunday’s game at New Jersey, Ilya Protas logged 16:43 in ice time – second only to P-L Dubois (21:04) – among Washington centermen that day, and he skated 1:28 of that time on the power play. He won six of 11 (55%) face-offs against the Devils, and he went up against the likes of Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, New Jersey’s top two pivots.
Ironically, the only Capital with a better face-off rate than Ilya Protas on Sunday was big brother Aliaksei, who won five of six (83%) while skating the left side of the Dubois line.
“I’m completely comfortable in the preseason for Little Pro to play against Jack Hughes,” says Carbery. “I think a lot of our games – playing in those games – those guys are as good as you get from skating, skills, deception, Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes and [Nico] Hischier and that whole crew. So you get a live feel for the Patrick Thomases of the world, Terik Parascak; to see that and play in games, you learn a lot. And Little Pro especially, with the minutes that he plays against them [on Sunday].
“I was telling this to Andrew Cristall; the players in this League are just so good. And then there’s the – [assistant coach] Scotty Allen calls them ‘The one-percenters’ – [players] that are just to another level. They do so many things on the ice, that you have to get comfortable with what they do. They’re trying to manipulate little movements, trying to get you out of position so that they can exploit ice here.
“So there are all these things, and it just takes reps. And Little Pro being able to get some of those reps and feel it live will benefit his development no doubt. And the more you play it, and I was actually talking to Dubie about this. Dubois, he does like 10 things [Sunday] in the game where it’s like, high, high, high-end intelligence against Hughes. He knows what Hughes is trying to do to manipulate space, to get middle ice, to hold onto pucks. And so Dubie counters that. Stuff like that, it’s just experience and learning what skilled players are trying to do in this League to take advantage of space.”
Feel Invincible – Caps defenseman Vincent Iorio is heading into his fourth pro season in 2025-26, and he will be seeing action in his third preseason game tonight. The personable 22-year-old blueliner – the Caps’ second-round choice (55th overall) in the 2021 NHL draft – has logged nine regular season and one Stanley Cup playoff game in the NHL, and he is a two-time Calder Cup champ with 190 regular season and 31 Calder Cup playoff games under his belt at the AHL level.
For the first time in his career, Iorio would need to pass through waivers to be returned to AHL Hershey this season. The Washington varsity roster is stacked in the back; there are eight defensemen who spent the entirety of last season in the NHL, with the offseason addition of Declan Chisholm in a deal with Minnesota.
Like everyone else in camp, Iorio is perfectly capable of reading a depth chart, and he knows the numbers aren’t favorable.
“Maybe a little bit,” he admits, when asked if the waiver factor enters his mind at all. “Honestly, I just try to focus on what I do to prepare every day. I take things day by day and just continue to do what I've been doing. Since I've turned pro, I've learned a lot of things from a lot of guys, and my parents have taught me to approach things day by day and to be really grateful for every opportunity you have. And that's just what I'm going to continue to do.”
Iorio is a right-handed defenseman who played on the power play at the junior level with the WHL Brandon Wheat Kings. As a professional, Iorio has been deployed differently. He has good size and mobility, and he is capable of getting pucks out of his end under pressure and holding his own in the corners at the net front.
“These [last three preseason games] are going to be good tests,” says Carbery. “Columbus is down to 25 [rostered players], so essentially their team plus two. And looking at their lineup tonight, you’re basically getting their opening night lineup, so these are good games to be able to evaluate Vinnie against an NHL lineup.
“And so, what does that mean, and what do we want to see from him? Very much of the same that he's done a good job of showing. His role and identity as a player is you defend really, really well – whether that's 1-on-1s off the rush, whether that's down low and [defensive] zone coverage, puck battles, net front battles – that the defensive part of your game is extremely sound. And then, when the time comes, moving pucks. When you get pucks – whether it's off breakouts, neutral zone regroups, offensive zone, blue line touches – he's really good with those decisions and the execution of those decisions.”
Now participating in his fifth NHL training camp, Iorio is still several weeks shy of his 23rd birthday. He’s come a long way since the Caps drafted him; he was their first selection in 2021 because they traded away their 2021 first-rounder in the deal for Anthony Mantha.
“I think probably off the ice,” says Iorio, asked where he has experienced the most growth in his game since being drafted. “I'm a happy-go-lucky kid. I'm always cracking jokes and being funny. But for right now, where I'm at, I'm really able to put myself in that zone come game time and really dial it in. I have my routine that I go through, and I think that's the most important part, is to mentally prepare. And then physically, all the stuff that you've worked hard for your whole life to get to that point, that that'll take over.”
Iorio has made the most of those five training camps and the short stints he has spent in Washington, soaking up everything he can from those experiences.
“I look at guys when I have been up with the Caps,” says Iorio, “looking at guys like [John Carlson], watching them prepare. And in Hershey, guys like [Dylan McIlrath] and [Aaron Ness], Lucas Johansen. I like to analyze – I'm a big analyzer – and for me, using that and taking that and kind of adapting with it, it's been really important for my preparation.”
In The Nets – For the second time in their last two preseason games, the Caps are bringing their varsity netminding duo of Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren to Columbus for Tuesday’s game. Lindgren started and went the distance on Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, and it would not be a surprise to see Thompson get his first full game of the preseason on Tuesday.
Thompson started the Caps’ preseason opener in Boston on Sept. 21, stopping 14 of 16 shots before yielding to Garin Bjorklund for the remainder of the game. Carbery says Thompson will go the distance tonight, as Lindgren did on Sunday in New Jersey, and as Clay Stevenson did in the Caps’ previous preseason tilt last Thursday against Philadelphia.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we expect the Caps to look when they take the ice Tuesday in Columbus, and here also is a roster of expected Blue Jackets for tonight’s game:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
72-Beauvillier, 17-Strome, 53-Frank
63-Miroshnichenko, 24-McMichael, 43-Wilson
28-Cristall, 29-Lapierre, 23-Rempal
58-Rybinski, 62-I. Protas, 87-Trineyev
Defensemen
47-Chisholm, 74-Carlson
52-McIlrath, 3-Roy
93-Gucciardi, 2-Iorio
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
COLUMBUS
Forwards
3-Coyle
4-Sillinger
10-Voronkov
11-Wood
19-Fantilli
21-Lundestrom
23-Monahan
24-Olivier
27-Aston-Reese
38-Jenner
59-Chinakhov
91-Johnson
Defensemen
5-Mateychuk
8-Werenski
9-Provorov
15-Fabbro
44-Gudbranson
78-Severson
Goaltenders
28-Fedotov
73-Greaves
