The Washington Capitals announced on Tuesday that they have placed center Michael Sgarbossa on waivers.
The Capitals have placed Michael Sgarbossa on waivers.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) December 28, 2021
The 29-year-old was placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on December 19 for one night after a false positive test.
Sgarbossa, who skated with the extras during Tuesday’s practice, has two goals and three points in seven NHL games this season in addition to earning eight goals and 14 points in 15 AHL games.
Head coach Peter Laviolette told the media on Monday that he was hopeful of getting right-wing T.J. Oshie off of COVID-19 protocol before the team’s game against the Nashville Predators on Wednesday (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington in-market, ESPN+ out-of-market). Centers Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov returned to practice with the team this week.
By Harrison Brown
Unless this is being done because of salary cap issues, but I thought that the league waived salary cap at the same time they added the taxi squad, this makes no sense. He was doing everything asked of him and unless the Caps are going to go with younger players I’m lost at why this happened.
He’s 29
I share your surprise in this. His stats were excellent, better than most of the forwards. He’s the only Capitals center above 50% in faceoffs, best shooting percentage, possession metrics, etc.
I would assume because of his age, they need to waive him to move him to Taxi squad or Hershey. Someone has to go down when Oshie comes off the list.
I think he did well. That Hershey line has performed well