Earlier Thursday morning, the Capitals re-assigned forward Travis Boyd to Hershey, with the intention that Andre Burakovsky will make his return to lineup Friday night against the New York Rangers. Moving Boyd and his $650,000 cap hit did not free up enough room to activate Burakovsky, whose hit is $3 million.
Late Thursday morning the team announced that they have placed forward Tyler Graovac on waivers. Removing Graovac and his $625,000 cap hit from the active roster gives the Caps enough space to activate Burakovsky.
Tyler Graovac to waivers, so the Caps can activate Burakovsky.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 7, 2017
btw, to activate Burakovsky off LTIR, Caps would have to make a corresponding roster move to clear some cap space. Returning Boyd wasn’t enough.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 7, 2017
Both moves all but ensure Burakovsky will make his return to the lineup Friday. The Swedish forward skated with the third line at practice, joining Lars Eller and Brett Connolly.
Burakovsky skating with Eller and Connolly on a third line. Chiasson still on second line with Kuznetsov and Vrana.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 7, 2017
