The Capitals leaked their final roster intentions on Sunday morning but made it official Sunday afternoon. Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Lucas Johansen, Henrik Borgstrom and Brett Leason have been placed on waivers with the intention of loaning the players to Hershey.
#Caps place the following players on waivers for purpose of loan to Hershey (AHL):
Forwards Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Henrik Borgstrom and Brett Leason and defenseman Lucas Johansen.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 9, 2022
The players will report to Hershey if they are not claimed by 2:00 PM on Monday. All NHL teams have to be at or below the 23-player maximum by 5:00 PM on Monday.
Before Sunday’s practice, Laviolette had to break the news to the players in his office at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
“I don’t take it lightly,” said Laviolette. “For a guy who was sent down every year, I understand exactly what they’re going through. Sometimes you don’t understand, but I do. The conversations are real and emotions are real, and I understand that. Nowadays, for the most part, everybody works really hard to try and attain their goal, so when you’re close, you can feel that. That’s real.”
Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, Carl Hagelin and Alex Alexeyev will be placed on injured reserve later today. (It is believed that Kody Clark has been injured, but there has been no official announcement by the team).
The moves indicate the Capitals will go with 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. The tentative roster (line assignments approximate).
Alex Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Connor Brown
Anthony Mantha — Dylan Strome — T.J. Oshie
Connor McMichael — Lars Eller — Conor Sheary
Marcus Johansson — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Joe Snively, Aliaksei Protas
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov — Nick Jensen
Erik Gustafsson — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Matt Irwin
Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
The Capitals begin their 48th NHL campaign on Wednesday when they host the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena (7 PM ET, TNT).
By Jon Sorensen
Let’s hope everyone clears. Saw some quotes from the players like Protas who made the lineup. Like McMichaels and Shively’s attitude as well. They seem like they know this is just first step.
On the actual lines. I don’t think they play Oshie on Second line with so many minutes.
While MoJo has had a nice preseason, I think I would put Protas in the lineup to start the season but we’ll see rotation. I think MoJo can be like Erwin last year. He is a veteran who can be put in and trusted, but maybe not a regular. Depends on how responsible and productive the young guys are.
Some people were saying Mojo would be waived, but I knew that wasn’t gonna happen. Just makes no sense to sign a guy for $1.1 M just to waive him. He’s a part of the team, till at least the trade deafline.
Yeah… i came around on him. Was good to have some more competition and he will certainly play a role this season. He will probably start the season, but I can see him rotating out to get Protas (and maybe Snively) some time as well.
Didn’t stop them from waiving Borgstrom. Their love for Mojo has no support by how level of play or production.
Sounds reasonable.
If Osh can’t start, do you anticipate a sub for him and his position or would Lavi shuffle the lines around so that sub plays elsewhere?
When Oshie gets hurt and cant play I hope Protas is placed there to keep line continuity. Rather than shifting people from line to line like last year let Protas and Snively be like Jack-of-All-Positions, where they fill in where needed. IF Eller goes down the CMM moves to C and either can fill his spot. And there is CMM who could fill in at C on any line without having to move the centers up and don thus causing little line movement.
Jon,
Did you figure those line assignments based upon seeing todays practice, based upon whose left (and last years roster), or another information source?
No, it’s based on nothing whatsoever, just went through who was left in my head.
LuJo’s chance of clearing may have been helped by the fact that more experienced defensemen like Mike Reilly, Will Butcher, Michael Del Zotto, Jarred Tinordi, Philippe Myers & Victor Mete are also on waivers. These players likely would be claimed before LuJo, giving him a better chance of making it through
Ding! It’s 2pm, do we know where our prospects are?