The Washington Capitals may not make the NHL playoffs at the end of the 2023-24 campaign but the Hershey Bears, their AHL affiliate, certainly will. Hershey is 39-9-3 and sitting atop the AHL league standings as they prepare to defend the Calder Cup championship they won last season.
Despite his waiver-exempt status and great experience winning the Calder Cup with the Bears last season, Connor McMichael is not expected to return to Chocolatetown for another run. According to Monumental Sports Network’s Tarik El-Bashir, the Capitals do not consider him a player in need of more minor-league seasoning.
“Internally, McMichael is considered to be a ‘graduated’ prospect,” El-Bashir wrote in the latest edition of his mailbag series. “In other words, he’s viewed as an NHL player now. So, no, I would not expect him to see another tour of duty in the AHL playoffs.”
McMichael had 10 points (6g, 4a) in 20 playoff games for the Bears in their championship run. The 2019 first-round draft selection led the team in playoff tallies and scored a huge goal for the Bears in Game Seven of the Cup Final against the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
McMichael has gotten into 52 games for the Capitals this season and set new career highs in both goals (10) and total points (20). This is his first season with the Capitals where he has been trusted to man a spot down the middle for the club as in the past he has primarily been tasked to skate out of his natural position on the wing.
The 23-year-old has also received more special teams responsibility from head coach Spencer Carbery in the rookie bench boss’ first spell behind an NHL bench. McMichael is getting over two combined minutes of penalty kill and power play ice time per game and that role only seems to be increasing as the season goes on.
McMichael likely needs a break, too. Since the beginning of last season, he has played in 135 combined games across the NHL and AHL with 28 games still to come to end this season. McMichael played his last game for the Bears on June 21 last year and was back on the ice at Capitals Training Camp less than three months later.
To be eligible to play in the AHL playoffs, players must be on an AHL roster at the upcoming March 8 trade deadline. Given the logic El-Bashir provides on McMichael, that same idea would apply to another still waivers-exempt name like Aliaksei Protas. Protas had 13 points (5g, 8a) for the Bears in his 20 playoff games with the team.
The Capitals do have two players currently on their roster that they likely will try and get back to Hershey in the coming weeks for postseason eligibility.
Pierrick Dube, a recent recall due to Nic Dowd’s injury, is waivers-exempt and will surely be returned. Mike Sgarbossa is another story as he is very close to requiring waivers to be sent back down and the team may want to keep him for the rest of the NHL season anyway.
