News Bytes For The Washington Capitals: July 9th, 2018

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Here are the latest Capitals news bits and bytes for July 9, 2018.

Contracts and Salary Cap – The Capitals are currently $8,265,705 under the salary cap, with Tom Wilson, Madison Bowey and Liam O’Brien the only remaining unsigned restricted free agents. O’Brien elected for arbitration.

Mitch Korn – Newsday is reporting that the Islanders are close to signing Capitals goalie guru Mitch Korn. Korn has followed Barry Trotz for most of his career, so this is really no shock. Korn began stepping away from the Capitals during the 2016-2017 season to spend more time at his home in Florida. He was (indirectly) replaced by Scott Murray in the summer of 2017. More on Murray here.

Day With The Cup – Alex Ovechkin was the latest Capitals player to have his day with the Cup on Saturday and Sunday. Defenseman Michal Kempny is next-up on Tuesday, followed by Jakub Vrana on Wednesday in Prague, Czech Republic. The latest schedule for Capitals players “Day with the Cup” can be found here.

The Swedes are Set – Nicklas Backstrom’s day with the Cup has finally been set. More on that here. Andre Burakovsky and Christian Djoos will have their days just prior to Baxkstrom’s, making for an entertaining week in Sweden. More on that here.

Ilya Samsonov – Samsonov has signed with Capitals goalie mask artist David Gunnarsson. Gunnarsson will be providing all of the artwork for Samsonov’s masks, as he does for Braden Holtby, Pheonix Copley and Vitek Vanecek. You can read our latest interview with Gunnarsson here, and our first interview with him here.

Liam O’Brien – Forward Liam O’Brien’s arbitration date with the Washington Capitals has been set for July 23 and will take place in Toronto.

Taylor Chorney – Former Capitals Defenseman Taylor Chorney signed a one year deal for 2018-2019 with Lugano HC in the Swiss League. “I’m ready for Lugano, whole, I really want to take advantage of what I’ve learned and a great desire to show everyone my value in a different role from the one I was assigned and I accepted in recent seasons in Washington”. More here.

Chris Bourque – AHL veteran and former Hershey Bear Chris Bourque has signed with Bridgeport, joining brother Ryan. more on the signing here.

By Jon Sorensen