The Washington Capitals woke up on Wednesday morning with a big hole in their lineup.
Anthony Mantha, owner of 20 goals this season, was dealt to the Vegas Golden Knights for two draft picks ahead of the trade deadline. Now, head coach Spencer Carbery has to fill the void Mantha leaves.
Rookie winger Ivan Miroshnichenko is the first player to get a new opportunity, as he jumped onto the left wing on the third line with Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano. Carbery indicated after practice on Tuesday that he wanted to see Miroshnichenko in another game.
This is how the rest of the Capitals lined up at practice.
Miroshnichenko appears set for his fifth career NHL game when the Capitals play Pittsburgh on Thursday night. The young Russian has been up with the team since February 26 but has been a healthy scratch in all four of the games the team has played since then.
Carbery was asked how this turn at the NHL would differ for Miroshnichenko after he was returned to the AHL’s Hershey Bears for a couple of months after his first recall.
“I don’t know if it’s any different other than he’s got a little bit more experience under his belt from playing those games that he played and then going back down and playing some more North American pro games in Hershey,” Carbery said. “You would hope that he’s better equipped for this situation. He’s a very young player, still learning our system, the language, playing over here in a visiting building. We just want him to be able to show building blocks and show improvement as he plays more at the NHL level.”
While Miroshnichenko looks like he’ll be getting the first shot at trying to fill Mantha’s shoes, Carbery admits that the team will likely need to do so from a by-committee approach. The Capitals still have a few names that could be moved out before Friday’s deadline and are currently carrying just 21 players out of a maximum of 23 on their roster.
The options Carbery listed include the recently reclaimed Matthew Phillips. The Capitals immediately sent Phillips to the Bears after reclaiming him.
“We’ll see how it shakes out,” Carbery said. “I’m not sure that I’m going to say that it’s going to be this one player. I think it will be a shared responsibility whether that’s Miro getting an opportunity to play right away, call it 12-13 minutes. Aube-Kubel potentially on that right side playing a little bit more. We reclaimed Matt Phillips so he comes back into the mix.”
Carbery insinuated that Phillips may be on his way back up to Washington shortly but was unsure how the rest of Wednesday would play out. He also made the point that the Capitals can’t just pick and choose who they want to bring up from Hershey as the league limits the number of recalls you have after the deadline passes.
Outside of recalls for emergency purposes, the Capitals will only be allowed four regular recalls after March 8 for the rest of the regular season.
“We’re going to have to be careful on recalls post-deadline,” Carbery said. “We don’t have an influx of those as we know so it’s not like we can shuffle guys in and out and just take a look at a ton of different guys. We’ll see how it shakes out. I can’t tell you exactly who is going to fill that role but there will be opportunity to go around whether that’s guys that have been here all year or some guys like Miro.”
In recent weeks, Carbery mentioned wanting to get a look at a few forwards down in Hershey. On that list were Hendrix Lapierre, Pierrick Dubé, Alex Limoges, and Ethen Frank. Lapierre is currently up with the team and Dubé was just sent back down on Monday.
