NHL and AHL teams are making their final roster additions with training camp a little over a month away. While the free agency market has been well picked over, there remain many players available with NHL experience well into August.
Two of those players, Max Pacioretty and Lucas Johansen, donned jerseys for the Washington Capitals last season. Johansen won his second-straight Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears in his seventh season with the AHL club.
Pacioretty, 35, was signed to a one-year, $2 million contract by the Capitals during free agency last year. His contract came with substantial performance bonuses after having back-to-back Achilles tendon tears in the year prior. He tallied 23 points (4g, 19a) in 47 games for Washington, achieving all his deal’s bonuses.
Those earned bonuses, adding up to $2 million, will be subtracted from the Capitals’ salary cap for the 2024-25 season. Pacioretty also had a chance to net the Capitals some assets at the trade deadline but chose not to waive his no-move clause in a proposed move to the New York Rangers.
Brian MacLellan, the team’s general manager at the time, ruled out bringing the veteran winger back for another season before free agency officially began.
Pacioretty’s shot volume, speed, and goal-scoring ability are well on the decline in the twilight of his career. He shot 4.2 percent this past season, less than half of what he used to in his prime. There have been some rumblings about the Montreal Canadiens potentially seeking a reunion with their former captain but nothing concrete has been reported about Pacioretty’s future.
Johansen, 26, is the only Bears player to feature in a game for Hershey last season without a contract after Matthew Phillips secured a deal with the Colorado Avalanche on Friday and defenseman Logan Day inked a new AHL deal with the Bears on Wednesday. Johansen, a former first-round pick of the Capitals, has struggled with injury issues throughout his pro career and is coming off a significant one that took him out of Hershey’s run to the 2024 Calder Cup.
The Vancouver native has spent his entire pro career in Washington’s organization, playing a career-high six games for the Capitals last year and making his NHL playoff debut in the team’s first-round series against the Rangers. He recorded an assist in those six playoff games to go along with the 12 points (2g, 10a) he amassed for the Bears in 22 AHL playoff games.
A return for Johansen to the Bears appears unlikely as the club has already loaded up their defense corps again with 12 defensemen on AHL contracts for next season, seven of those defenders being lefties like Johansen.
- Logan Day (RHD)
- Brad Hunt (LHD)
- Hardy Häman Aktell (LHD)
- Vincent Iorio (RHD)
- Jayden Lee (RHD)
- Nicky Leivermann (LHD)
- Jake Massie (LHD)
- Jon McDonald (LHD)
- Dylan McIlrath (RHD)
- Aaron Ness (LHD)
- Chase Priskie (RHD)
- Hudson Thornton (LHD)
Johansen’s lack of contract despite still being a very effective AHL rearguard may be because he hit the 260-game mark in his professional career last season. AHL gameday rosters can include:
- A minimum of 12 skaters that have played fewer than 260 professional games – development players
- A maximum of one skater that has played fewer than 320 professional games – veteran-exempt player
- A maximum of five skaters that have played over 320 professional games – veteran players
Those rules apply to players who dress for the game so you can have more than five veterans on your roster, but only five can play in any game.
Johansen would fall into the veteran-exempt status in which only one can dress for a team per game and not be considered a veteran. Hershey already has someone, Häman Aktell (291 games), who qualifies for that spot due to his time spent as a pro in Sweden and has more upside.
With the KHL preseason already underway, these players’ options continue to dwindle professionally. Other former Capitals joining them in limbo include Jakub Vrana, Justin Schultz, Kevin Shattenkirk, and Matt Irwin.
