The Washington Capitals placed defenseman Dylan McIlrath on NHL waivers on Sunday.
The Capitals removed McIlrath off their 23-man roster after acquiring goaltender Remi Poirier in a trade from the New Jersey Devils.
The other 31 NHL teams will have 24 hours to claim McIlrath over the next 24 hours. If they don’t, the Capitals can send him to the AHL’s Hershey Bears on Monday, where he was captain from 2022-2024 and won two Calder Cups.
McIlrath made the Capitals out of training camp for a third straight year and has played four games this season, averaging just 6:34 of ice time per game. He has been leapfrogged on the team’s depth chart by recent waiver claim Jack St. Ivany, who has four assists in his first two games with the Caps. Washington also saw defender Rasmus Sandin return to practice earlier this week for the first time since undergoing ACL surgery.
With the move, the Capitals will move forward with just six total defenders on their roster, carrying two extra forwards and an extra goalie. Head coach Spencer Carbery was asked how comfortable he is with that roster makeup ahead of the club’s game against the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
“I don’t love it,” Carbery said. “But, I mean, that’s just life in the National Hockey League with a 23-man roster. Yeah, I would love for it to be more balanced than that, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes with roster management. We’ve had six (defensemen) and carried six at times before, and we’ve carried eight and 13 (forward), so we’ll see where it goes.”
If McIlrath clears waivers, the Capitals could add him back immediately if they later waive Poirier to avoid carrying three goaltenders.
