Friday was a fairly quiet day for the Capitals on the trade front with their only move being the acquisition of winger Anthony Beauvillier from Pittsburgh. There’s another winger that they were hoping to get back soon but that’s no longer the case for Sonny Milano. Speaking with reporters Friday including Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, GM Chris Patrick indicated that the winger suffered a fairly significant setback in his recovery from an upper-body injury.
The 28-year-old has been out since early November and has played in just three games with Washington this season, being held off the scoresheet. However, he had been a capable depth scorer in recent years, reaching the double-digit goal mark in three straight seasons, the last two of which came with the Caps.
It looked as if Milano was well on his way toward returning as he had been skating for several months and participating in non-contact drills but Patrick noted that it’s back to the drawing board in terms of a plan for his recovery. Given how long he has been out for, his availability for the rest of the season is certainly now in question.
Milano is currently on LTIR with his $1.9MM AAV contributing to more than half of their current LTIR room which stands at $3.175MM, per PuckPedia. Washington is likely to use a good chunk of that when Ryan Leonard’s season comes to an end as it’s widely expected they’ll try to bring him in for the stretch run and playoffs so even if Milano was cleared to return before the playoffs, it’s likely they’d keep him stashed on there anyway for cap compliance purposes. Regardless, it’s fair to say that the second season of Milano’s three-year deal has not gone the way anyone would have hoped.
The good news is that the Caps will have Ryan Leonard available to pop into the lineup once his college season is over. That kid is NHL ready.