{"id":204235,"date":"2025-10-06T01:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T01:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/204235\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T01:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T01:59:08","slug":"what-sundays-nhl-waivers-decisions-indicate-about-the-capitals-final-roster-to-begin-the-2025-26-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/204235\/","title":{"rendered":"What Sunday\u2019s NHL waivers decisions indicate about the Capitals\u2019 final roster to begin the 2025-26 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals made what could be their final cuts out of training camp, waiving Clay Stevenson and Ethen Frank on Sunday<\/a>. The two moves were necessary due to Monday\u2019s 5 pm deadline, when all NHL teams are required to submit their 23-man Opening Night rosters.<\/p>\n

With Stevenson and Frank now either on their way to the AHL\u2019s Hershey Bears or another NHL team, the Capitals are left carrying 25 players. When factoring in the injuries to Matt Roy and Dylan McIlrath from Saturday night\u2019s preseason finale against the Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>, the team\u2019s projected roster to begin the year can be deduced, barring any surprises.<\/p>\n

As things currently stand, the Capitals are set to carry 14 forwards, seven defensemen, and two goaltenders, with Roy and McIlrath on injured reserve.<\/p>\n

Projected Washington Capitals roster to begin 2025-26 season
\nForwards<\/p>\n

Alex Ovechkin
\nPierre-Luc Dubois
\nTom Wilson
\nDylan Strome
\nAliaksei Protas
\nNic Dowd
\nAnthony Beauvillier
\nConnor McMichael
\nSonny Milano
\nBrandon Duhaime
\nRyan Leonard
\nIvan Miroshnichenko (waivers-exempt)
\nHendrix Lapierre
\nJustin Sourdif<\/p>\n

Defensemen<\/p>\n

Jakob Chychrun
\nJohn Carlson
\nMatt Roy (IR)
\nRasmus Sandin
\nTrevor van Riemsdyk
\nMartin Fehervary
\nDeclan Chisholm
\nVincent Iorio
\nDylan McIlrath (IR)<\/p>\n

Goaltenders<\/p>\n

Logan Thompson
\nCharlie Lindgren<\/p>\n

With the injuries to McIlrath and Roy, the Capitals are poised to begin the season with a different roster composition than they had for the majority of last season. During the 2024-25 campaign, the Caps typically carried just one extra forward, leaving them with two roster slots for extra defensemen.<\/p>\n

The number of extras for the positions is currently set to swap this year. However, that\u2019s assuming that both injured defenders do end up on injured reserve. If just one of them is placed on IR, Ivan Miroshnichenko could still be sent down to the Bears at any point over the next day, as he\u2019s waivers exempt.<\/p>\n

Even if they do both end up on IR, the same scenario could occur if the Capitals decide they want to stick with eight defenders. Miroshnichenko would be freely moved down, allowing them to recall a player from Hershey.<\/p>\n

Miroshnichenko, for now, joins Hendrix Lapierre, Sonny Milano, and Vincent Iorio as players on the fringe of the team\u2019s roster at the outset of camp to win spots on the club\u2019s Opening Night roster. Lapierre and Milano combined for 13 points (5g, 8a) in their preseason appearances, with Lapierre tying for the league lead (7) in overall exhibition scoring.<\/p>\n

The strong fall has led to Lapierre retaking the third-line center position<\/a> that he lost last season when the Capitals sent him down to Hershey after acquiring Lars Eller from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Head coach Spencer Carbery admitted that the former first-round draft choice forced the Caps to \u201cconsider some different options,\u201d ahead of playing Lapierre on a third line with Miroshnichenko and Ryan Leonard in the team\u2019s preseason finale.<\/p>\n

Milano played just three games last year, primarily due to an upper-body injury that he suffered in November. He is still, by far, the most experienced of the final forward options, having played 313 career NHL games. He recorded 33 points (11g, 22a) in 64 games for the Capitals during the 2022-23 campaign.<\/p>\n

Iorio, who was potentially destined for waivers on Sunday before the injuries on defense, will make the Capitals out of training camp for the first time since they drafted him in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft. The 22-year-old rearguard played in four preseason games this fall.<\/p>\n

The Capitals will be back at practice on Monday morning, so who takes the ice and who doesn\u2019t, as well as Carbery\u2019s line combinations and defense pairings, will likely make the roster choices even clearer. The team opens their regular season against the Boston Bruins at Capital One Arena on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals made what could be their final cuts out of training camp, waiving Clay Stevenson and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-204235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}