The Washington Capitals have a handful of young, talented defensemen all vying for two open roster spots on opening night.

To get to the next level in their development, many of the players adjusted their diets to either put on more muscle or drop some unneeded weight.

Over the weekend, we learned that 2015 second-round pick Jonas Siegenthaler lost an astonishing 24 pounds by cutting out Mom’s Thai food and potato chips from his diet. 2013 second-round pick Madison Bowey nearly lost half that much by cutting carbs and giving up ice cream.

#Caps D prospect Madison Bowey dropped 11 lbs. from lst yr by cutting carbs and giving up ice cream. "I feel more mobile for sure," he said.

— Tarik El-Bashir (@TarikCSN) September 19, 2017

Despite being in great shape, Bowey, who has skated with Dmitry Orlov and Jyrki Jokipakka during training camp, appears to be a long-shot to make the team after missing a majority of last season with injury.

“Probably like all of the defensemen, he’s had some really good moments and he’s had some moments of uncertainty, not so good moments,” Trotz said Tuesday after practice. “I think he’s just the same as a lot of the other guys. [Wednesday] he’ll probably get an opportunity to be in the game and show what he can do. That’s really what separates everything. He practices well. He moves well. He’s got the skill-set to do the right thing. Now can he make all the strength, and the skill, and the skating translate into a productive player on the ice in an NHL game? That’s the next step for a player. That’s where Madison is. He needs to have a good solid, consistent game tomorrow and build from that.

“I told the players yesterday. Go find your game,” Trotz continued. “Go find your game within our system. Your game will come out real strong. Madison’s got to go find his game within our structure of our team and our system and play it well. If he does, he’ll separate himself from some guys.”

According to Trotz, Bowey was going to be called up in late December last season, but missed out on the opportunity after a freak injury. Bowey missed several months of game action after a tendon in his ankle was lacerated.

“The timing wasn’t great,” Trotz said. “I’ll be quite honest. He was playing real well – a real high end of his game [was showing] down in Hershey. I had been talking to Troy Mann. He said, ‘He’s been playing as good as he’s ever played for us.’ I said that ‘just looking at our schedule – we had a couple road trips coming up – I’d like to take him to a coming trip here.’

“I think I probably jinxed him because he got hurt right away,” Trotz said. “That sort took him out of the mix for the rest of the year.”

But if Bowey can find his game during the preseason, which is now sans postgame ice cream, he could make the team out of camp.

“[I]f he can get his game back to that level like it was and translate it over here, physically, he has all the tools,” Trotz said.