ARLINGTON, VA — Jakub Vrana’s second tenure with the Capitals came to a close on Thursday when the Nashville Predators claimed him off waivers
Vrana had spent most of 2025 in the press box, largely supplanted in the lineup by Ethen Frank. His last game with the Capitals came on February 27, filling in when Tom Wilson sat out due to illness, and marked his first game in close to two months.
Head coach Spencer Carbery was sad to lose Vrana, pointing to both his strengths as a player and the importance of organizational depth. But after watching him fight his way back into the NHL, Carbery was glad to see Vrana get a chance at more regular game time — especially under former Capitals head coach and current Predators GM Barry Trotz, who coached Vrana to a Stanley Cup in 2018.
“(It’s) bittersweet,” Carbery said Friday. “I was disappointed that we no longer have him in the organization. But I was also, at the same time, very, very happy for V to be able to get an opportunity and go play for the rest of the season in Nashville, for an organization that there’s some attachments there with Barry (Trotz). So it stinks for us because having a player like him, even though he wasn’t playing, to have him around and if there’s an injury or if we need someone to go in the lineup, we always had him. And he was just — the guys loved him. He was great all year.”
Nearly three years after the Caps traded him to the Detroit Red Wings, Vrana came back to DC on a PTO last fall, looking to revitalize his career following a tumultuous few seasons that saw him spend time in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and play primarily in the AHL. The opportunity to play in Washington again held an especially personal meaning for Vrana.
“Washington is always going to be in my heart and I always wanted to play here,” he said then. “Like I said before, this chance means a lot to me. Things happened over the past few years, but I already put that behind me and I’m ready to see this as a new opportunity to bounce back.”
Vrana’s strong performance at Training Camp earned him an NHL contract and he played semi-regularly in the first months of the season, but began to sit out more frequently as call-ups from the Hershey Bears — first Ivan Miroshnichenko and then Frank — largely replaced him in the lineup. Vrana played just three games for the Caps in 2025, despite Carbery noting last month that he hoped to get the team’s healthy scratches more ice time.
While he’s struggled to earn games with this year’s Capitals, Vrana will likely get far more playing opportunities with the Predators, who rank third-last in the NHL with a record of 23-32-7. He may not have been able to secure a regular lineup spot for the Capitals, but Carbery highlighted what he did managed to accomplish as he clawed his way back into the league. And even though Vrana won’t finish the year in Washington, Carbery will still be cheering on his NHL comeback from afar.
“When I talked to him this summer — and here’s the beautiful thing about the game and about the individuals that play it and then have put their lives into this — he was doing everything he could this summer to just get a chance for a tryout,” Carbery said. “That was objective one. Just, ‘Get me into a camp.’ Okay. Objective two was to try to make a hockey team. Objective three was to play NHL games. And objective four was try to earn a contract to stay in the NHL.
“So it’s tough for us, but he’s slowly chipped away at all of the objectives and what he set out to do. He got to training camp. He made a hockey team. He showed he could still play in this league and scored some huge goals for us, game-winning goals. Went on a stretch where he was a real difference maker for us. And now he’s going to have an opportunity to finish the job and go play whatever they’ve got left, 20 games, and earn a contract, whether it’s from Nashville or somebody else, to stay in the NHL. So that makes me happy and it makes you want to pull for him in this final stretch of the season.”
