The Washington Capitals took to the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex for their last practice ahead of the NHL’s Opening Night roster deadline without Matt Roy and Dylan McIlrath.
The two veteran defensemen suffered injuries — Roy an upper-body injury and McIlrath a lower-body injury — against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the Capitals’ preseason finale on Saturday night. Neither player was able to finish the game, leaving the Caps with just four defenders for the final 10 minutes and 36 seconds of the third period.
Head coach Spencer Carbery said after the practice that the team was still determining the players’ status.
“Both didn’t skate today,” he said. “(They’re) still, I would call it, in the evaluation period of seeing where they’re at, but did not skate today. We’ll know more probably in the next day.”
For Matt Roy, the early-season injury will likely lead to a bout of deja vu, as the 30-year-old rearguard was injured in last year’s first game of the 2024-25 regular season. He played just 8:39 of that October 12 game against the New Jersey Devils and didn’t return to the club’s lineup until November 6.
Roy eventually played in 69 total games for the Capitals in his first season with the team, skating on average 19:53 of ice time per game and recording 24 points (3g, 21a). The 2025-26 campaign will be the second year of the six-year, $34.5 million ($5.75M AAV) contract he signed with the Caps as an unrestricted free agent during the 2024 offseason.
McIlrath, 33, spent most of last year as the team’s seventh defenseman, getting into 17 games, which was the most NHL games he has played in a single season since he got a sweater 34 times with the New York Rangers during the 2015-16 campaign.
Unlike Roy and McIlrath, goaltender Charlie Lindgren skated after missing Saturday’s game for maintenance.
Carbery noted that the team was “still working through” whether any of the Capitals’ defensemen would start the season on injured reserve, with the team required to submit its Opening Night roster by 5 pm. Vincent Iorio, who appears set to make the cut after the pair of injuries, skated on the team’s extra defense pairing with winger Ivan Miroshnichenko at Monday’s practice.
The Capitals now have 25 players remaining at training camp, excluding the already-waived Ethen Frank and Clay Stevenson. They will need to reduce that to 23 players by the 5 pm roster deadline, either by placing players on injured reserve or by sending waivers-exempt players to the AHL. Of those remaining at camp, Miroshnichenko and Ryan Leonard are the only ones exempt from waivers. The team will find out the fates of Frank and Stevenson at 2 pm.
