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Capitals put Nathan Walker on waivers

By Ian Oland

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November 30, 2017 12:12 pm

It didn’t take a long time for Nathan Walker to become a fan favorite in Washington. On October 7, the forward became the first Australian to ever play and score in the NHL. But after a string of successful games, Walker was benched and put in Barry Trotz’s dog house. Despite several injuries among the Caps forwards, Walker has played in only one of the team’s last nine games.

Thursday morning, Walker’s first stint in the NHL ended – at least with the Capitals – as the team announced that they were attempting to send the prospect back down to AHL Hershey. The Caps 2014 third-round pick can be claimed by any NHL team for the next 24 hours.

The Capitals also passed defenseman Aaron Ness through waivers earlier in the week after activating Christian Djoos from injured reserve.

Walker put up sterling possession numbers in four of the Caps’ first 12 games — a 63.7 shot-attempts percentage which was best on the team at the time — but Trotz dressed the Aussie in only three of the team’s next 13 games.

In late October, Trotz cited Walker’s wall play and his lack of penalty killing for his sporadic play.

“I actually talked to Walks, different things about his role,” Trotz began. “He’s just like a young player. We talked about being really accurate on your wall plays, being a guy who brings energy all the time. You’ve got the speed, now we’ve got to make you a real productive player. He didn’t kill penalties in Hershey; he’s going to have to learn to kill penalties here and gain trust from us coaches, too. It’s something that we’ll have to work together with.”

Walker’s numbers, and potentially his confidence, cratered after that – though these are all tiny sample sizes. Walker’s shot attempts percentage slid under water (48.24 percent) after being out-attempted 26-12 in his next three games against the Islanders, Sabres, and Avalanche. Against the Avs, Walker lost a board battle to Mikko Rantanen, which led to Colin Wilson’s first goal with Colorado. The goal put the Avalanche up 3-0 in the second period. The Caps would go on to lose 6-2 in one of the team’s worst outings of the year.

Walker hasn’t played since.

“We looked at it and with people getting healthy and Nate wasn’t getting in the lineup,” Trotz said in explanation of the move after practice Thursday. “We’re not doing him any favors. You only build your game on the ice. Let’s see if he clears waivers.”

With Andre Burakovsky returning sometime in December, the team needed to send another forward down at some point. The only other likely candidate was Tyler Graovac. Graovac was traded for over the summer so the Caps could leave him unprotected in the expansion draft. The forward owns the worst possession numbers on the team (very small sample size), but can be used on the penalty kill. Graovac is also eight inches taller and 22 pounds heavier than Walker.

Headline photo: Cara Bahniuk