The Washington Capitals have a crowded talent pool at this year’s training camp as they bring back a majority of their successful 2024-25 roster for another season. The core veterans from last year’s team have mixed in with many of the club’s top prospects from the last few drafts, leaving a small number of open spots up for grabs.
“I was joking in the office, it feels like this is the most opportunity we’ve had in a camp for someone to come in and earn a spot,” general manager Chris Patrick said last week. “And there’s maybe like one and a half spots available. It’s going to be a dog fight.”
The Capitals will soon begin to make training camp cuts, and as X user @buyusbezos noted, select players signed to NHL contracts will need to clear waivers before heading back to the team’s minor-league affiliates. Among the notable names on the fringe of the roster who fall into that status include Sonny Milano, Hendrix Lapierre, Justin Sourdif, Dylan McIlrath, Ethen Frank, and Vincent Iorio.
All of those players, and eight others currently at camp, will have to risk a claim by another NHL team to make their way onto the Hershey Bears’ AHL roster.
Waivers-eligible Capitals players on the bubble
- Sonny Milano, F
- Hendrix Lapierre, F
- Justin Sourdif, F
- Spencer Smallman, F
- Sheldon Rempal, F
- Graeme Clarke, F
- Henrik Rybinski, F
- Bogdan Trineyev, F
- Ethen Frank, F
- Dylan McIlrath, D
- Vincent Iorio, D
- Louie Belpedio, D
- Calle Rosen, D
- Clay Stevenson, G
For the vast majority of last season, the Capitals carried 13 forwards, 8 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders on their 23-man roster. Three of those regular forwards, Lars Eller, Andrew Mangiapane, and Taylor Raddysh, departed this summer in free agency. On defense, only Alex Alexeyev left for a new team, and the primary goaltending tandem will remain the same.
Forwards
Up front, the Capitals seemingly have 10 of 13 spots already occupied by talent that were regulars at the end of the regular season and into the playoffs. The situation leaves three spots open for the above nine forwards plus waivers-exempt players like Ivan Miroshnichenko, Andrew Cristall, Ilya Protas, and Lynden Lakovic.
Unlike in prior seasons, the Capitals will have many talented players for other teams to consider claiming with prior NHL experience, including Milano, Lapierre, Sourdif, and Frank. The Capitals moved two draft picks, including a 2026 second-round selection, to the Florida Panthers for Sourdif in June, so he is likely to make the final roster just based on asset management alone.
Milano and Lapierre, who combined for seven points (3g, 4a) in Sunday’s preseason win over the Boston Bruins, both made the team out of camp last year. Milano played in just three games before hitting the injured list for the rest of the campaign, while Lapierre struggled through 27 games before ultimately being sent down to Hershey.
Lapierre, the team’s 2020 first-round pick, is still just 23 years old and a restricted free agent at the end of the year. He responded well to his AHL demotion, posting 32 points (7g, 25a) in 32 games for the Bears, and is coming off his first lengthy offseason since he fully turned pro in 2022. He is no longer waivers-exempt after spending five years under contract with the Capitals.
While Smallman, Rempal, and Clarke are likely AHL mainstays for the rest of their careers, the trio of Rybinski, Trineyev, and Frank could be attractive to teams with less depth than the Capitals. Trineyev, a 2020 fourth-round pick, is a restricted free agent at the end of the year and is an industrious bottom-six talent. Rybinski, 24, received his first NHL recall last season, and Frank, 27, posted seven points (4g, 3a) in 24 games for the Caps.
Defense and Goaltenders
On defense, the Capitals have filled Alexeyev’s left-handed absence with Declan Chisholm, who played 66 games for the Minnesota Wild last season. Chisholm’s arrival leaves just one spot on the team’s roster for another defender, assuming the Caps plan to carry eight defensemen again this year.
McIlrath, 33, made the Capitals out of training camp last season and never returned to Hershey, where he was the Bears’ captain. McIlrath, affectionally called “Big Mac” by his teammates, is beloved in the team’s locker room and got into 17 games for the Caps during the 2024-25 campaign. He was inked to a two-year, one-way contract extension worth $1.6 million last March.
However, the Capitals may be more inclined to risk McIlrath on waivers if it means they can keep Iorio, the team’s top pick in the 2021 NHL Draft. Iorio, 22, is a young and likely coveted defender due to being six-foot-four and right-handed, who has nine games of previous NHL experience.
Iorio seemed to take a step forward with the Bears last year, showing the most consistency of his young pro career in 67 games for the Atlantic Division’s top team. While he didn’t see any game time, Iorio was the Capitals’ first recall option when Jakob Chychrun was put on injured reserve in November. As he was technically signed to his entry-level contract during his age-19 season, Iorio was only waivers-exempt for four years, and this is his fifth year with the Capitals.
In goal, Stevenson does not have any chance of making the Capitals’ roster unless one of Logan Thompson or Charlie Lindgren gets injured within the next couple of weeks. He’ll likely make it to Hershey safely despite making his NHL debut last year, as his full 2024-25 season was not as impressive as his AHL All-Star 2023-24 campaign.
Stevenson, on paper, will be Hershey’s number-one netminder this year, backed up by either Garin Bjorklund or Mitch Gibson.
The Capitals do have another option to avoid losing any of their more coveted players for nothing on waivers: making a trade before the start of the regular season.
While they haven’t done so in recent seasons, the Caps did trade Mathieu Perreault to the Anaheim Ducks on September 29, 2013, after he was considered excess to the roster that year but too valuable to just lose on waivers.
NHL teams must set their opening day rosters by 5 pm ET on October 7.
