The Washington Capitals announced on Saturday afternoon that defenseman Alexander Alexeyev has undergone labral repair surgery on his left shoulder. He is expected to miss 4-5 months.

@TheHersheyBears defenseman Alexander Alexeyev underwent a surgical labral repair on his left shoulder. Based on the nature of this procedure, Alexeyev is expected to miss 4-5 months.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) June 18, 2022

Alexeyev has dealt with quite a few injuries in his career, but most of them have occurred while he was playing for the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Alexeyev sustained no less than eight injuries in 156 games played over the his three seasons with Red Deer.

The injuries ranged from moderate to severe, capping his seasons at 41, 45 and 49 regular season games played (out of 72 regular season games in the WHL). That’s 45%, 33% and 28% of the games over the three seasons. (More on his WHL injuries here.)

Alexeyev has been much more resilient during his first three seasons in the AHL, playing 68 games during his rookie campaign, 12 games in the Covid-shortened 2020-21 season (he played a full season in the KHL prior to coming to Hershey for the finish of the season) and 58 games in the 2021-22 season.

With the anticipated departures of Justin Schultz, Michal Kempny and Matt Orwin, Alexeyev was set to battle for a potential depth defenseman position on the Capitals roster this fall. The Capitals could be looking to add as many as three defensemen to the roster this off-season.

On Wednesday defensive prospect Tobias Geisser announced that he had signed a three-year deal with EV-Zug in the Swiss League. As a result, the Capitals projected depth chart heading into this off-season looks like this:

By Jon Sorensen