The Washington Capitals announced late Thursday afternoon that forward Anthony Mantha was activated off of long-term injured reserve.
To make room for Mantha’s return, forward Carl Hagelin was placed on long-term injured reserve and forward Joe Snively was placed on regular injured reserve.
#Caps activate Anthony Mantha, place Joe Snively on IR and Carl Hagelin on LTIR.
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 3, 2022
Mantha’s return comes as the team has struggled to create consistent five-on-five offense in recent months (29th in goals for per 60 minutes in their last 25 games). He will also likely see a role on the team’s power play that has notably struggled to impact games in a positive way for quite some time.
“He’s looked really good out here to me in practice,” Peter Laviolette said today after the morning skate. “It looks like he’s strong, it looks like he’s conditioned. Lots of positives to go with that.”
He had six points in ten games this season before injuring his shoulder against the Florida Panthers on November 4, an injury that required surgery.
Hagelin had eye surgery on Wednesday to fix an issue that the team deemed “serious”. He is out indefinitely. Snively has an upper-body injury and the team says he is week-to-week.
