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Mitchell Gibson

Capitals Reassign Ethan Bear, Clay Stevenson, Mitchell Gibson

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Since being eliminated from the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Washington Capitals could stand to lose a few players on their postseason roster. In an attempt to help their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, the Capitals announced they’ve reassigned defenseman Ethan Bear, and netminders Clay Stevenson and Mitchell Gibson.

Bear will be the most important piece for the Bears’ Division Finals matchup against the Charlotte Checkers. In his first full AHL season since 2018-19, Bear was impressive in Hershey, scoring 10 goals and 46 points in 62 games with a +33 rating. He led the entire Bears roster in scoring and finished tied for eighth among AHL defensemen. Fortunately, Hershey was able to eliminate their division rival, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, in five games without their top scorer.

After debuting in the NHL on the last game of the regular season, Stevenson was recalled by the Capitals yesterday in case Charlie Lindgren couldn’t participate. As it would turn out, Lindgren managed to serve in a backup role, and Stevenson will return to the AHL to help the Bears win their third consecutive Calder Cup championship. He appeared in one postseason game against the Phantoms, stopping 28 of 32 shots in Game 4, which allowed the Bears to extend the series.

Gibson is the only member of the trio who has spent little time on either team’s roster. He spent much of the 2025-26 season with the Capitals’ ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, managing a 12-1-0 record in 14 games with a .933 SV% and 1.75 GAA. Depending on what Washington does with pending unrestricted free agent Hunter Shepard this offseason, Gibson could be in line to share the crease with Stevenson in southeast Pennsylvania next season.

Capitals Recall Mitchell Gibson, Assign Clay Stevenson To AHL

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With the next few days off, the Capitals have made a couple of moves on the goalie front.  The team announced that they’ve recalled Mitchell Gibson from AHL Hershey while assigning Clay Stevenson to the Bears.

Gibson is in his second full professional season and spent the bulk of the year with ECHL South Carolina.  In 14 games with the Stingrays, he played quite well, putting up a 1.75 GAA and a .933 SV% while winning his only start with Hershey.  However, he has played just three times for the Bears over the last two years which might not help his cause heading into restricted free agency this summer.

As for Stevenson, he made his NHL debut in the final game of the regular season but otherwise has played exclusively with the Bears in each of the last two years.  In 33 games with Hershey this season, he posted a 2.94 GAA along with a .888 SV%, numbers that were considerably worse compared to a year ago when those checked in at 2.06 and .922, respectively.

The move will essentially serve as a swap of third-string goaltenders, allowing Stevenson to potentially see game action with Hershey during their second-round series against Lehigh Valley.  Before their series against Carolina gets underway, there’s a good chance this move will be reversed.

Minor Free Agent Signings: Metropolitan Division

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With over 180 deals signed during the first day of free agency yesterday, some smaller names may have gotten lost in the shuffle. Here’s a list of names that have inked two-way deals with Metropolitan Division clubs since the market opened yesterday, per CapFriendly. Some of these may have been included in our main coverage yesterday, while others went under the radar. All contracts carry the league-minimum $775K cap hit unless stated otherwise). Those listed here are likely to begin 2024-25 with each team’s AHL affiliate.

Carolina Hurricanes

none

Columbus Blue Jackets

D Cole Clayton (one year, $950K entry-level cap hit)
F Owen Sillinger (one year)

New Jersey Devils

F Mike Hardman (two years)
D Colton White (two years)

New York Islanders

none

New York Rangers

none

Philadelphia Flyers

none

Pittsburgh Penguins

D Nathan Clurman (one year)
D Mac Hollowell (one year)
F Jimmy Huntington (one year)
F Bokondji Imama (one year)
D Ryan Shea (one year)

Washington Capitals

G Mitchell Gibson (one year)
D Chase Priskie (one year)

Capitals Re-Sign Ethen Frank, Chase Priskie, Mitchell Gibson

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July 1, 9:01 a.m.: Washington has made both of these depth extensions official, also inking RFA goalie Mitchell Gibson to a one-year, two-way deal ($775K NHL/$100K AHL). Gibson, 25, was a fourth-round pick of the Caps in 2018. Last year was his first pro season after a four-year career at Harvard. He played mostly with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, recording a .899 SV%, 2.56 GAA and three shutouts in 42 games.

June 30, 8:14 p.m.: Just hours after issuing a qualifying offer to Ethen Frank, the Capitals have reached an agreement on a new contract with him.  PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that they’ve re-signed the forward to a two-year contract.  The NHL portion is the minimum of $775K in both years while the AHL salary is $250K next season before converting to a one-way agreement for 2025-26.

Meanwhile, PuckPedia adds (Twitter link) that the Caps have also re-signed pending UFA blueliner Chase Priskie to a one-year, two-way agreement.  The deal pays $775K in the NHL and $400K in the minors.

Frank only has two full professional seasons under his belt after a five-year NCAA career.  In his rookie campaign, the 26-year-old put up a strong 30 goals and 19 assists in 57 games with AHL Hershey.

This past season, he followed it up with a similarly strong showing, notching 29 goals and 18 assists in 64 regular season games.  Despite that, he didn’t receive a recall from Washington during the season.  Frank finished up on a high note, collecting 10 goals and seven assists in 18 postseason appearances, helping the Bears take home the Calder Cup.

As for Priskie, the 28-year-old has four career NHL appearances under his belt from 2021-22 with Florida but has played exclusively in the minors since then.  This season, he had eight goals and 26 assists in 69 games with Hershey before adding 14 more points in 20 playoff contests.  He’s in line to play a big role for them again next season.

Capitals Assign Seven Players To The AHL

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One day after being swept by the New York Rangers, the Washington Capitals announced that they’ve assigned seven players to the Hershey Bears of the AHL. Washington’s AHL affiliate is the top seed and are the defending Calder Cup champions.

The Capitals loaned goaltender Mitchell Gibson, forwards Ivan Miroshnichenko and Hendrix Lapierre, as well as defensemen Lucas Johansen, Vincent Iorio, Dylan McIlrath, and Hardy Haman Aktell to the Bears. The group will have an opportunity to make a deep playoff run in Hershey. Iorio, Johansen, Lapierre, and McIlrath were all part of Hershey’s Calder Cup championship team from last season.

Of the players being assigned to Hersey only Lapierre and Miroshnichenko played more than 20 NHL games this season. Lapierre dressed in 51 games for Washington posting eight goals and 14 assists as well as a goal and an assist in four playoff games. He tallied his first career postseason goal last night with a beautiful individual effort that tied the game at two.

Miroshnichenko dressed in 21 games with Washington this year, posting two goals and four assists. The 20-year-old was the Capitals first-round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft and appeared mostly in the AHL this season where he had nine goals and 16 assists in 47 games.

Iorio, Johansen, and Aktell all appeared in six games for Washington this season, while McIlrath dressed in three NHL games. Gibson didn’t see NHL action this year and spent most of the season in the ECHL, aside from two games with the Bears.

Hershey opens their Atlantic Division Semifinals series against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Wednesday at GIANT Center. Lehigh Valley swept the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in two games this past weekend and will be a big underdog against the Bears, especially with all the reinforcements that Washington has sent down.

AHL Shuffle: 4/19/24

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Half the league has played their last games for the 2023-24 campaign, while the other half is gearing up for postseason action starting tomorrow. Either way, squads are making roster adjustments today, whether it’s assigning players back to the minors after their NHL seasons came to a close or recalling reinforcements for their playoff runs. We’ll keep track of all of today’s moves here:

  • The Bruins have recalled center John Beecher and defenseman Mason Lohrei from AHL Providence. Both will be available for tomorrow’s Game 1 of Boston’s first-round series against the Maple Leafs. The pair of youngsters were assigned to the minors throughout the last week for playing time down the stretch after spending most of the campaign on the NHL roster. They’ll likely be scratches for tomorrow’s contest, but after combining for 93 games played in the regular season, head coach Jim Montgomery won’t hesitate to plug them into the playoff lineup.
  • The Flames have assigned forwards Matthew Coronato and Adam Klapka, defenseman Ilya Solovyov, and goaltender Dustin Wolf to AHL Calgary. The NHL club’s regular season came to an end last night in a 5-1 win over the Sharks, a game all four players involved in today’s transaction played in. Wolf, one of the league’s top goaltending prospects, ended his season on a high note with 16 saves on 17 shots after putting up underwhelming numbers down the stretch for the Flames. All four will play major roles for the Wranglers over the next couple of weeks, at the very least, as they’ve clinched a spot in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
  • The Capitals have recalled goaltender Mitchell Gibson from ECHL South Carolina. The 24-year-old, who has no NHL experience, is in his first full season of pro hockey after spending the last four seasons in collegiate hockey at Harvard. He’ll serve as a Black Ace and emergency backup as their first-round matchup against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Rangers gets underway. A fourth-round pick of the Caps back in 2018, he has a .899 SV%, 2.56 GAA, three shutouts, and a 22-14-3 record in 42 appearances with South Carolina this year, as well as a .915 SV% and a perfect record in two showings with AHL Hershey.
  • In a similar move, the Predators have brought up netminder Gustavs Grigals from ECHL Atlanta. Undrafted, the Latvian had spent the season in the Nashville organization on a minor-league contract before receiving a two-way deal from the Preds on deadline day. The 25-year-old was excellent last year for UMass-Lowell after transferring from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, posting a .924 SV% in 24 games and earning Hockey East Third All-Star Team honors. He’s adjusted decently well to the pro ranks, posting a .900 SV% and three shutouts behind a defensively challenged Atlanta squad in 34 appearances with an 11-19-0 record.
  • The Blackhawks have assigned forward prospect Lukas Reichel to AHL Rockford to finish his season. Chicago expected the 21-year-old to take a major step forward in his development this season and supplant himself as a top-six fixture for the future along with Connor Bedard, but it didn’t work out that way. The 2020 first-round pick was arguably among the worst players in the league this season, limited to five goals and 16 points in 65 games with a -29 rating despite seeing second-line looks for much of the season. His average ice time dipped to almost 14 minutes per game by the end of the campaign, however.
  • The Jets have assigned forwards Nikita Chibrikov, Parker Ford, Brad Lambert, and goaltender Collin Delia to AHL Manitoba. Winnipeg recalled the foursome yesterday to provide reinforcements for yesterday’s regular-season finale against the Canucks. Chibrikov and Lambert made their NHL debuts, with the former notching his first NHL goal in the process. Delia backed up Laurent Brossoit while Jennings Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck was given the night off entirely, while Ford was a healthy scratch. Delia was again recalled under emergency conditions later Friday, suggesting he’ll be available as a Black Ace/emergency backup for Game 1 against the Avalanche on Sunday.
  • The Coyotes have made likely the final group of transactions in franchise history, returning forwards Dylan Guenther, Josh Doan, Aku Raty, and defensemen Michael Kesselring and Vladislav Kolyachonok to AHL Tucson. The sale of the team’s hockey operations to Salt Lake City-based Smith Entertainment Group was approved by the NHL’s Board of Governors yesterday, rendering the Coyotes franchise inactive and establishing a new franchise in Utah. The five youngsters will finish the season in the Calder Cup Playoffs with the Roadrunners. Some of these players, likely Guenther and Doan at a minimum, will travel to Salt Lake City and will be a part of that team’s opening-night squad next season. The others may remain in Tucson, which is expected to serve as the Utah franchise’s minor-league affiliate.
  • The Oilers have assigned defenseman Philip Broberg and winger Adam Erne to AHL Bakersfield. The pair were recalled earlier in the week to allow the Oilers to rest stars like Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard before kicking off their first-round playoff series against the Kings in a few days. They’ll return to playoff-bound Bakersfield for now but will be among the first in line for recalls if necessary.
  • The Kings have assigned forward Alex Turcotte to AHL Ontario. He’d spent most of the last week in the minors on an LTI conditioning loan, but was activated off LTIR and reinstated to the NHL roster on Tuesday. He didn’t play in the Kings’ final game of the regular season last night, though. The 23-year-old presumably won’t be in their Game 1 lineup against the Oilers and will report for playoff action with the Reign.
  • The Islanders have summoned goaltender Jakub Skarek from AHL Bridgeport, per the league’s media site. The 23-year-old comes up to serve as the extra/reserve netminder as the Islanders begin their first-round series with Bridgeport eliminated from playoff contention. The 2018 third-round pick has again struggled in the third-string spot, posting a .888 SV% and 7-22-6 record in 36 appearances for the AHL Isles this year. He was passed over for recalls earlier in the regular season in favor of veteran Kenneth Appleby.

This page will be updated throughout the day.

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