The Washington Capitals announced their roster for the fifth preseason game on Wednesday night when they host the Detroit Red Wings at Capital One Arena. Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and T.J. Oshie are set to make their second starts of the preseason.
Connor McMichael and Joe Snively are set to return to the lineup as well. Aliaksei Protas, who has yet to miss a preseason game, is also slated to start.
Forwards: Alex Ovechkin, Henrik Borgstrom, Dylan Strome, Lars Eller, Garnet Hathaway, Connor McMichael, Connor Brown, Anthony Mantha, Aliaksei Protas, Conor Sheary, T.J. Oshie, Marcus Johansson, Joe Snively and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Defensemen: Nick Jensen, Dmitry Orlov, Martin Fehervary, Lucas Johansen, Erik Gustafssson, Trevor van Riemsdyk and John Carlson.
Goaltenders: Darcy Kuemper, Charlie Lindgren
The Capitals will wrap their preseason schedule on Saturday when they hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets at Capital One Arena.
Red Wings at Capitals Game Notes
Training Camp Roster
32 players remain on the training camp roster, although it four (Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, Clay Stevenson and Carl Hagelin) will likely be added to the injury list prior to opening night. That leaves 28 players for 23 spots. The 23-man roster needs to be finalized at 5:00 PM the day before the opening of the season.
By Jon Sorensen
This could be LuJo’s last try.
Six cuts. Hmmmm. Cody Clark is one, Johansen?
Only Protas & McMichael are waivers exempt. Some of the players who don’t make the roster could have a hard time clearing waivers. Snively, Jonsson-Fjallby, Leason & Johansen all are candidates to be claimed. Even a guy like Irwin could be claimed as a few teams are likely to be in the market for a d-man to cover injuries at the start of the season. St. Louis has one defenseman out for the season & another who is out for basically the entire season. Toronto has 2 d-men down right now & have said that they are looking to bring in another d-man for the start of the season. Johansen & Irwin would be options for either of those two teams
So besides our 3 injured, Clark, Dowd, Leason, and Irwin are sitting?
I wonder if Clark is injured. No games, no practice, not waived.
That would be nothing new. He always seems to be injured
Sadly, you are correct.
Hard to make this call but you have great insight into the roster so who do you project the capitals will end up lossing though a waiver claim this year?
I agree LuJo may make the roster with a great showing but I doubt they carry 2 extra d.
Alex Ovechkin,Evgeny Kuznetsov, Anthony Mantha
Dylan Strome, Connor Brown, Joe Snively (great line thus far)
Lars Eller, Conor Sheary, T.J. Oshie
Nic Dowd, Garnet Hathaway, Marcus Johansson
Connor McMichael seems to have lost out to Eller and Strome so I suspect he will be a spot starter till the team trades Eller near the end of the season.
I think the coach would like to keep Aliaksei Protas but only if he plays on a line.
Leason, Borgstrom, Jonsson-Fjallby could get claimed if they get waived what are your thoughts?
This team is starting out a lot healthier this year than last year and hopefully they are stronger in goal so why is everyone projecting they miss the playoffs? I think they could pass the NY Rangers and Pittsburgh Pens if they stay healthy and get a jump when Wilson comes back. Do you agree they look strong enough to be a playoff team?
They are much better in goal than they have been in years, so that is a BIG plus. Cant afford to carry to extra D so they keep LuJo and say cut Irwin. Also not going to carry 3 goalies so Stevenson gets the axe. The last 3 will be…..drum roll……Clark, CMM as he doesnt have to go through waivers and MoJO!
Do they have to cut Clay right now if he is on IR? If they don’t have to, is there an advantage to doing it now?
Don’t think they will cut MoJo.
I agree that Clark’s lack of play seems to indicate injured reserve. I agree with steven that Mojo could be let go, any minimum contract ish could go, but I don’t think they will. Lav loves vets and there is really no need to let him go. I think they have salary cap room to carry a heavy roster for 5 games or so and see if anyone gets injured are plays their way to being cut or sent to Hershey. I think CMM stays, but I think a year at Hershey would benefit him more than playing 10 minutes a game and being scratched will.
CMM won’t like it, but he’ll be okay. Hell, many probably don’t remeber, but Orlov requested a trade (his agent did) as he was being yo yoed between Hersey and DC (and not playing in DC when called up)…mostly to avoid Orlov from being able to go to KHL if I remember correctly.
CMM will get better in Hershey and will be ready to step in next year. Never let go of quality centers unless you need to.
I didnt know or remember that about Orlov. I remember the Wilson situation where they had to put him on Caps roster or subject him to the thugs in CHL.
That same decision here is do they send CMM or Protas to Hershey. I guess they could send both to keep Snively, LuJo, AJF, and Leason. That would be interesting way to navigate waivers while still keeping guys who will likely be playing with Caps next year (except LuJo).
Meant MoJo not LuJo. I think LuJo the same though if they don’t want to expose him. But he is more likely to clear than the forwards.
There are too many LuJos, MoJos, Jojos (also Marcus Johansson)
Any guesses on what the lines will be for blue jackets game on Saturday?
I would guess very similar to Wednesday’s. Laviolette said he is using these two games as dress rehearsals for the most part,