Caps' Trip Continues in San Jose
A day after settling of trade deadline dust, Caps face Sharks in Saturday matinee match
Twenty days after the first of their two meetings this season, the Caps and the Sharks will close out their season's series in San Jose with a Saturday matinee match at SAP Center. The game is the third of four in Washington's last lengthy road trip of the 2022-23 season; the trip concludes on Monday night in Los Angeles against the Kings.
Saturday's game with the Sharks comes a day after the NHL's trade deadline, which passed at 3 p.m. Eastern time on Friday. Washington was busy in the days leading up to the deadline, moving five regular players in four separate trades in less than a week. Three of those deals came while Washington was settled in Anaheim for four nights earlier in the trip.
For the Caps, this year's trade deadline has been a jarring experience. It's the first time in 16 years that they've been sellers ahead of the deadline and the first time in nearly as long that they've been in the midst of a lengthy trip at the deadline.
Three of the players who embarked upon this trip with the Caps following last Saturday's victory over the Rangers in D.C. will not be returning to the District with the team on Tuesday. Forward Marcus Johansson was traded to Minnesota on Tuesday, and defenseman Erik Gustafsson was dealt to Toronto later that same day.
Friday's deadline day was much quieter for the Caps; they didn't make any additional deals leading up to the 3 p.m. Eastern time deadline, though they did announce some transactions and a contract signing.
During Wednesday's 3-2 overtime victory over the Ducks in Anaheim, the Caps lost two top defensemen to injury. Nick Jensen went down with an upper body injury early in the first period and Martin Fehervary was lost to a lower body injury midway through the third period. Both are day-to-day and neither is expected to play on Saturday in San Jose, so the Caps recalled blueliners Gabriel Carlsson and Vincent Iorio from AHL Hershey, and they returned defenseman Dylan McIlrath to Hershey as well.
Carlsson is expected to make his Washington debut and the 20-year-old Iorio is expected to make his NHL debut on Saturday against the Sharks. The duo arrived in San Jose on Thursday and took part in Washington's Friday morning practice here.
"They look fine," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette of Carlsson and Iorio. "They've had good years down there, and it was just practice, but they looked good."
Of the six defensemen who suited up for Washington's season opener against Boston last Oct. 12, only one - Trevor van Riemsdyk - is expected to be in the lineup on Saturday. Three are injured and two - Gustafsson and Dmitry Orlov were recently traded.
"I can't remember one," says Laviolette, asked whether he can recall a previous season in which a team of his endured blueline attrition to that extent. "It's obviously tough losing players, and the injuries have been that way all year. They've bitten us constantly, and it's something that we had to work around. It provides opportunity for the guys that are now here."
Rasmus Sandin, the 22-year-old defenseman obtained from Toronto in the Gustafsson trade, is also set to make his Caps debut on Saturday in San Jose. Sandin joined the Caps in Anaheim and participated in Wednesday's morning skate before the game against the Ducks, but he was unable to play while awaiting his U.S. work visa to be finalized. The red tape has been cut, and he is expected to play on Saturday, likely manning the team's top pairing alongside van Riemsdyk.
Sandin is now in his fourth NHL season, and he has averaged 16:40 per game in ice time over 140 contests in the League. His average ice time for each season of his career has increased a bit every year, starting at 14:19 per night in a 28-game stint as a rookie in 2019-20 and elevating to 17:59 per night in 52 games with the Leafs this season.
With Toronto, Sandin was playing third pair minutes, but the Caps see him as a top four blueliner moving forward. With all the injuries to the Caps' blueline brigade, Sandin will certainly draw more minutes on Saturday than his career average and his average with the Leafs this season.
"Obviously you want to prove yourself and earn that role that you want," said Sandin following Wednesday's skate. "It's not just about coming here and being given that role that you want; you have to earn it. I'm very prepared for it, and I'm very excited about it."
Washington also announced the signing of right wing Nicolas Aube-Kubel to a one-year contract for the upcoming 2023-24 season. Claimed off waivers from Toronto on Nov. 5, 2022, Aube-Kubel has skated in 30 games for the Caps this season, scoring a pair of goals and registering eight points.
"It's always uncertain, especially with this year's trade deadline; it was so crazy," says Aube-Kubel. "I guess with all the trades coming in, they needed someone for this year and next year to fill that role, and that started the contract talks."
"I like the team," says Aube-Kubel. "You never know with free agency. Last year was a bit chaotic, last summer. It's good to be here, I'm happy with the Capitals, so that was my first choice."
San Jose made a pair of last-minute deals on Friday, moving out veteran forwards Nick Bonino (to Pittsburgh) and Vladislav Namestnikov to Winnipeg. The Sharks' biggest deal of the deadline season came last weekend when they sent scoring winger Timo Maier to New Jersey. In that blockbuster swap, San Jose sent Maier and a trio of players to the Devils for a quartet of players in return, plus New Jersey's first-rounder in 2023 and a conditional first-rounder in 2024.
Two of the players obtained from the Devils - forwards Andreas Johnsson and Fabian Zetterlund - reported directly to San Jose and have played in a couple of games with the Sharks since the deal. The others are both defensemen: Nikita Okhotyuk, a 22-year-old chosen in the second round (61st overall) by the Devils in 2019 and Shakir Mukhammadullin a 21-year-old chosen in the first round (20th overall) by New Jersey in 2020.
Saturday's game is the finale of a seven-game homestand for the Sharks, who are 1-4-1 on the homestand to date. Their lone victory was a 4-0 whitewashing of Seattle on Feb. 20. Most recently, they absorbed a 6-3 setback at the hands of the St. Louis Blues here on Thursday night.
