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2023-24 Washington Capitals Thread


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The Djoos is officially loose.  

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Capitals waive defenseman Christian Djoos in latest round of roster cuts
By Isabelle Khurshudyan  September 30, 2019 at 12:53 p.m. EDT
 

Facing salary-cap constraints and a deadline to trim their roster before the first game of the season, the Washington Capitals waived defenseman Christian Djoos and two other players Monday afternoon.

 

Djoos has been on the roster for the past two years, playing nearly every game in the team’s 2018 Stanley Cup run, and exposing him to waivers means he’s at risk of being claimed by another team over the next 24 hours. If he clears waivers, he can be sent to the American Hockey League on Tuesday at noon.

 

The Capitals now have 25 players on their roster, and have until 5 p.m. Tuesday to set their opening-night roster of no more than 23 players. Along with Djoos, Washington also waived forwards Michael Sgarbossa and Liam O’Brien and reassigned prospect Shane Gersich. All three players spent all of last year in the AHL.

 

Djoos suffered compartment syndrome in his left thigh halfway through last season, and he struggled in his return to the lineup after missing two months of the season. A seventh-round pick in 2012, Djoos has appeared in 108 games for the Capitals, scoring four goals with 20 assists while averaging 13:50 per game. Though he’s considered undersized for an NHL defenseman at 6 feet and 169 pounds, Washington was fond of the offensive upside he provided with how he efficiently moved the puck up the ice.

 

But Djoos’s new cap hit, a one-year, $1.25 million contract awarded in arbitration, likely spelled the end of his time with the Capitals. If Djoos were to clear waivers, the max buried cap hit is $1.075 million, so $175,000 of his contract still would count toward the cap.

 

Roster projections that included Djoos had the team significantly over the NHL’s $81.5 million salary-cap ceiling, so cutting him will help remedy that. Washington will get temporary salary-cap relief with center Evgeny Kuznetsov’s $7.8 million hit coming off the books during the three games that he’s suspended for “inappropriate conduct” to start the season. But once Kuznetsov is activated on Oct. 8, the Capitals might be forced into more roster decisions.

 

Further complicating matters for the team, top-four defenseman Michal Kempny is still recovering from a torn left hamstring that required surgery in April, and he’s expected to miss at least the season-opener in St. Louis. That means Washington will likely have to start the season with eight defensemen, and because Kempny’s absence isn’t expected to be long-term, the Capitals are not inclined to place him on long-term injured reserve. That would free up his $2.5 million cap hit while he’s sidelined, but he’d be required to miss at least 10 games.

 

Washington might choose to start him on regular injured reserve, which wouldn’t give the team any salary-cap relief, but it would free his roster spot and force him to miss just two games. The Capitals have defensemen Jonas Siegenthaler, Martin Fehervary and Tyler Lewington left on the roster, and Coach Todd Reirden has indicated that either Siegenthaler or Fehervary will take Kempny’s place on a top pairing with John Carlson while Kempny’s out. Fehervary is this season’s training-camp surprise, potentially poised to make his NHL debut at just 19 years old, drafted by the Capitals in the second round a year ago.

 

Washington also still has three goaltenders left on the roster with Pheonix Copley and prospect Ilya Samsonov both still options to serve as Braden Holtby’s understudy. In the forward ranks, Chandler Stephenson and Travis Boyd, two players once thought to be on the outside looking in to crack the lineup, have survived this latest round of training camp cuts. Both players would require exposure to waivers to be sent down to the AHL, but one of them is expected to fill in at center during Kuznetsov’s suspension.

 

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