The Capitals announced their final roster cuts Monday morning. The most surprising dismissal was veteran center Derek Roy, who played well during training camp. With Jay Beagle announced as the team’s third-line center and Nicklas Backstrom potentially missing only four games, the Caps must have seen little upside keeping Roy around as a fourth-line center.

The Caps also cut forwards Liam O’Brien and Chandler Stephenson, defensemen Aaron Ness and Ryan Stanton, and goalie Justin Peters, who struggled mightily last year, from training camp. That means Philipp Grubauer will be Braden Holtby’s back-up this year.

As the Capitals PR team noted, Ness, Peters, and Stanton will all have to pass through waivers before joining the Hershey Bears in the AHL.

For those of you keeping track at home, that means forwards Chris Brown (who is injured), surprise-of-camp Sean Collins, and oft-criticzed Stan Galiev all remain on the roster, at least for now.

Here’s the full roster:

After last night’s final preseason game, head coach Barry Trotz praised Collins, comparing him to departed fan-favorite Joel Ward.

“He’s not going to wow you as a sexy player or anything like that,” Trotz said. “He’s going to wow you with his consistency and he does a lot of those detail things that we know Joel Ward used to do here for many years that probably didn’t get noticed a lot until you start watching real closely.”

The cuts bring the Capitals’ roster down to 24 players. With Nicklas Backstrom and Brown presumably starting the season on injured reserve, that means the Caps are under the 23-man limit for the start of the season.

Cuts leave #Caps roster at 24. Backstrom and Brown will likely start season on IR, so that should do it. Caps down to opening night crew.

— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) October 5, 2015