Rangers Claim Vincent Iorio Off Waivers From Sharks, Assign Brett Berard To AHL
After moving out Carson Soucy earlier this week, the Rangers have added some young defensive depth. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports (Twitter link) that New York has claimed defenceman Vincent Iorio off waivers from the Sharks. To make room on the roster, the Rangers announced (Twitter link) that forward Brett Berard has been sent down to AHL Hartford.
The 23-year-old started the season as a depth defenseman with Washington, the team he was originally drafted by in the second round back in 2021. After playing primarily at the AHL level over his first three seasons (with a total of nine NHL appearances during that time), the Capitals rostered him to start this year in a reserve role, worried about losing him on waivers. Sure enough, that’s what happened soon after as San Jose scooped him up in mid-October amidst some injuries to their back end.
Iorio was in and out of the lineup with the Sharks. He played regularly after being claimed but after a couple of weeks, he was in the press box. Eventually, he agreed to a conditioning stint in the minors with the Barracuda and was productive, tallying seven assists in just six games with them. Upon being recalled in late November, Iorio returned to somewhat of a regular role until recently as he has been scratched for the last two weeks. Overall, Iorio has played in 21 games this season with San Jose, notching three assists and 32 blocked shots while averaging 16:30 per night of playing time.
While the Sharks likely would have liked to have kept Iorio around, a roster crunch forced their hand. With the pending returns of Philipp Kurashev and Shakir Mukhamadullin today following their IR activations per a team announcement (plus Kiefer Sherwood not too far behind), San Jose needed a roster spot and Iorio was the one who lost his. Once Sherwood is activated, another spot will need to be cleared up as well.
Meanwhile, with the Rangers embarking on some form of retool in the coming weeks, they will be moving out more pieces before the trade deadline in March. This claim will allow them to get a look at a young defender in Iorio to assess if he can be part of their plans moving forward while also giving them insurance should any other blueliners be moved. He’s in the final season of his entry-level contract, one that carries a cap hit of just over $814K, and will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer.
As for Berard, he was only recalled on Tuesday and got into one game while up with the big club, bringing his season total to 13. He’s still looking for his first point of the season, however. The 23-year-old has six goals and a dozen assists in 30 games with the Wolf Pack and will get a chance to return to a bigger role with them after averaging just 10:33 per night with the Rangers.
Sharks Place Vincent Iorio On Waivers
The San Jose Sharks have placed defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. If he clears, Iorio will become eligible for assignment to the AHL, after spending the last six games as a healthy scratch. San Jose claimed Iorio off of waivers from the Washington Capitals in the second week of the NHL season. The Sharks wielded one of the top claim spots in the league at the time and will now face the risk of allowing the rest of the league a chance at claiming the young, two-way defender.
Iorio has had an up-and-down year since joining the Sharks’ depth chart. He has appeared in 21 NHL games – more than the nine games he combined for over the last two seasons – but only has three points and a minus-four to show for it. He’s failed to find a true groove near the bottom of a beat-up blue-line, but showed his prowess on a brief AHL conditioning stint earlier this season. Iorio was loaned to the minors for six games in November, after recovering from an injury that held him out of the first week of the month. He scored in five of those games, ultimately totaling seven assists and a plus-seven on the assignment.
Those numbers haven’t translated to the top flight yet, though Iorio did have a string of strong appearances at the turn of the new year. An assignment to the minors will allow the 23 year old to get back into a productive groove. It will also give the Sharks a bit more freedom to ice bruising veteran Vincent Desharnais, who has played in five of the six games that Iorio has been scratched. Desharnais has three points and 38 penalty minutes in 25 games this season.
Sharks Recall Vincent Iorio From Conditioning Loan
Defenseman Vincent Iorio is once again available to suit up for the Sharks after spending the last two weeks with AHL San Jose on a conditioning loan, the team announced. Since players on conditioning loans still count against the active roster, no corresponding move is required.
It hardly comes as a surprise. Yesterday marked two weeks since San Jose announced Iorio’s conditioning loan, the maximum length for the maneuver. Iorio is a new face to the organization after being claimed off waivers from the Capitals in October. He made Washington’s opening night roster out of concern that the club would lose him on waivers during the preseason rush if they decided to sneak him through then. After scratching him for their first four games, the Caps attempted to sneak Iorio through waivers, but their plan failed.
The intrigue from a team on the rise, lacking young right-shot defenders, was more than understandable. The 6’4″, 220-lb rearguard was a second-round pick in 2021 and had been knocking on the door of an everyday role with the Capitals until a disappointing campaign last year with AHL Hershey delayed his emergence. Still, he’s struggled to find a regular role with the Sharks. He suited up in six straight contests after being claimed, but didn’t put together a great body of work with a -3 rating and three shots in 16:20 of average time on ice. The Sharks were outscored 6-2 with Iorio on the ice at 5-on-5, although his 43.4 CF% at even strength was a respectable fourth among San Jose defenders behind Sam Dickinson, Dmitry Orlov, and Vincent Desharnais.
The conditioning stint looks to have done good things for Iorio’s confidence after the tumultuous start to the campaign. He rattled off seven assists and a +7 rating in six appearances with the Barracuda. He now looks to re-emerge on a crowded Sharks blue line that includes nine names on the active roster.
Sharks Assign Zack Ostapchuk To AHL, Send Down Vincent Iorio On Conditioning Loan
With the team off until Tuesday, the Sharks have made a pair of roster moves. The team announced this afternoon (Twitter link) that forward Zack Ostapchuk has been assigned to AHL San Jose. Meanwhile, blueliner Vincent Iorio has also been sent to the Barracuda on a conditioning stint.
Ostapchuk’s stint with the Sharks was short-lived as he had only been recalled on Thursday and didn’t see any action after his promotion. Acquired from Ottawa at last year’s trade deadline as part of the Fabian Zetterlund deal, the 22-year-old played somewhat regularly down the stretch, getting into 13 games. However, with the option of having limited playing time in the NHL or a bigger role in the minors, the Sharks have opted for the latter this season while he remains waiver-exempt. In nine games with the Barracuda this season, Ostapchuk has two goals and an assist.
As for Iorio, he was claimed off waivers from Washington midway through last month when the Sharks were dealing with some injuries on the back end. He played regularly for about a week and a half, getting into six games where he was held off the scoresheet while posting six blocks in 16:20 a night of playing time. However, he has been a healthy scratch in seven straight games as some of their injured rearguards have started to return. With this being a regular conditioning loan, it can last for up to two weeks.
While two players are coming off the roster, the Sharks are only gaining one roster spot with these moves. Iorio will remain on San Jose’s roster while on assignment, meaning that they still have 22 players on their active roster.
Sharks Claim Vincent Iorio
The Sharks have claimed defenseman Vincent Iorio off waivers from the Capitals, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. They cleared a roster spot just minutes ago by placing Timothy Liljegren on injured reserve.
Drafted 55th overall by the Capitals in 2021, Iorio’s tenure in Washington comes to an early end. Waiver-eligible for the first time this season, Iorio made the Caps’ opening night roster but didn’t get into a game before landing on the wire yesterday to make way for veteran Dylan McIlrath to come off injured reserve. He has just nine NHL games to his name, none of which came last season. The 6’4″ righty had one assist with a +1 rating while averaging 11:20 per game across the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
The Caps were in a tough spot with Iorio, who they didn’t feel was ready for full-time NHL minutes on one of the league’s deepest blue lines. Keeping him in the press box over McIlrath would have stunted the 22-year-old’s development. Trading him for an asset wasn’t very feasible, either, as teams knew he would be available for free on the waiver wire anyway. Interest evidently wasn’t strong enough for other parties to try to jump the line ahead of the Sharks, who still have top priority after finishing with the league’s worst record last year.
San Jose hopes to benefit from Washington’s lose-lose situation. The British Columbia native hasn’t shown a ton of forward progress in the minors since turning pro three years ago, but he displayed expert transition skills in junior hockey and boasts a good two-way profile from his experience in the Caps’ system with AHL Hershey. He’s made 190 minor-league appearances, posting an 11-45–56 scoring line for an average of 0.29 points per game. He carries a career +39 rating to boot, although that’s somewhat inflated by him logging significant minutes on one of the AHL’s best teams of that period.
Iorio’s claim doesn’t bode well for top prospect Sam Dickinson to stick on San Jose’s roster for the rest of the season. Liljegren’s absence isn’t expected to be long-term, and the Sharks don’t have any other waiver-exempt defenders on their roster aside from Dickinson. The 2024 No. 11 overall pick was a scratch for the season opener and has averaged under 12 minutes per game through two appearances with the Sharks, posting a -2 rating with no shot attempts and one block. Returning him to OHL London before he reaches the 10-game mark will slide the beginning of his entry-level contract to 2026-27 and remove him from their 50-contract limit for the remainder of the season.
If San Jose opts to keep Dickinson when Liljegren returns and waives Iorio again instead, the Capitals have the option to reclaim him. If they’re the only team to submit a claim, they can send him directly to AHL Hershey and bypass waiving him a second time.
Capitals Place Vincent Iorio On Waivers
The Capitals have placed defenseman Vincent Iorio on waivers for the purpose of reassignment to AHL Hershey, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet relays Wednesday afternoon. Iorio’s active roster spot will likely go to fellow rearguard Dylan McIlrath, who’s expected to come off injured reserve later this week, head coach Spencer Carbery said (via Katie Adler of Russian Machine Never Breaks).
Iorio, 23 next month, was a second-round pick by the Capitals in 2021 and made his NHL debut with Washington in 2022-23. He’s only made nine NHL appearances in the years since, none of which came last season. In those nine games, the 6’4″ righty has managed an assist with a +1 rating while recording six blocks and five hits. He averaged just 11:20 per game but was looking to advance the puck, posting 18 shot attempts and getting half of them through on goal. His raw possession metrics weren’t promising, only controlling 41.8% of shot attempts at even strength despite seeing advantageous offensive zone deployment.
Waiver-eligible for the first time this year, Iorio brings an intriguing profile to the wire. He made Washington’s opening night roster as a healthy extra – and presumably the Caps felt they had a greater chance of sneaking him through if they avoided waiving him during the late-preseason rush. His recent minor-league performance, though, offers insight into why they’re comfortable taking the chance of losing him. His offense hasn’t developed since turning pro three years ago, recording around 20 points in 65 appearances each year. He had a 5-15–20 scoring line in 67 games in 2024-25 with a career-worst -4 rating. Should he clear successfully, he’ll be looking to build on those numbers in Year 4 in Hershey.
He’ll make way for McIlrath, who continues to stick around on Washington’s NHL roster. The past couple of years have been a rebirth for the former top-10 pick, who spent the bulk of his prime in the minors and was even Hershey’s captain from 2022-24 but stuck with the Caps’ top group all of last season. He was used sparingly as a No. 7/8 rearguard, recording two assists in 17 appearances, but that was still the most time at the top level he’d seen since making a career-high 34 appearances for the Rangers way back in 2015-16. The 33-year-old is effectively Washington’s enforcer and has 161 career penalty minutes in 92 games since making his NHL debut in 2013-14.
Capitals Activate Matt Roy From Injured Reserve
12:40 p.m.: The Capitals confirmed Roy’s activation and also said that Iorio had been sent down.
9:24 a.m.: Capitals defenseman Matt Roy was a full participant in practice Wednesday and projects to return tonight against the Predators after missing the last 10 games with a lower-body injury, Sammi Silber of The Hockey News reports. Washington has a full 23-player active roster and must make a corresponding transaction to activate him from injured reserve. That will likely be reassigning waiver-exempt defenseman Vincent Iorio, who’s been a healthy scratch twice since being summoned last weekend, to AHL Hershey.
Roy, 29, sustained the injury at some point during the first period of his Capitals debut against the Devils on Oct. 12. He did not skate in the second or third periods after recording a -2 rating and two shots on goal in 8:39 of ice time in the first. Initially ruled as day-to-day, he remained out of the lineup for two weeks before landing on IR on Oct. 28 to open up roster space.
It was an inauspicious start to Roy’s tenure in Washington after signing a six-year, $34.5MM contract in free agency to serve as their No. 2 right-shot defenseman behind John Carlson. He’ll now get the chance to be an impact shutdown player as advertised on a Capitals team that’s far exceeded expectations in the first few weeks of the season, sitting fourth in the Eastern Conference with a .727 points percentage (8-3-0).
The 2015 seventh-round pick had been a legitimate needle-mover in the Kings’ top four for the past few years before reaching unrestricted free agency. Last season was some of his best work. Skating on Los Angeles’ second pairing alongside Vladislav Gavrikov, Roy notched a career-high 20 assists in 81 games with a +21 rating, averaging 20:54 per game. He led the Kings in blocks (197) and finished second in hits (152), leveraging his 6’1″, 205-lb frame while controlling 52.9% of shot attempts at even strength.
Capitals Place Jakob Chychrun On IR, Recall Vincent Iorio
The Washington Capitals have placed defenseman Jakob Chychrun on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. In a corresponding move, they’ve also recalled defender Vincent Iorio for the first time this season.
Little details have been revealed about Chychrun’s injury. He hasn’t hit the ice since leaving Tuesday’s win over the New York Rangers after just four shifts. There wasn’t any clear moment where Chychrun appeared to get injured, though he was seen clutching at his ribs in his last shift. Chychrun sat out of Washington’s Thursday win over Montreal, and will now have to miss at least one more week of action. With his move to IR not retroactive, this move will force Chychrun out of at least four games. His next chance to play will be when Washington visits St. Louis on Saturday, November 9th.
This news brings a screeching halt to Chychrun’s hot start in Washington. He’s been the team’s clear-cut top left-defender, averaging over 21 minutes of ice time and recording four points in seven games prior to injury. Chychrun joined the Capitals via trade this summer, with Washington dealing Nick Jensen and a third-round pick back to the Ottawa Senators – just over one year after Ottawa traded a first-round and two second-round picks for the defender. For all of his moves over the last two seasons, Chychrun has seemed to find a home in Washington – and could even set a new career-high in scoring should he maintain his current scoring pace.
With Chychrun headed to the shelf, Washington is once again turning towards top defenseman Vincent Iorio. Iorio was the 55th-overall pick in the 2021 NHL Draft and turned pro in the 2022-23 season, finding a spot on the Hershey Bears’ blue-line and ultimately posting 36 points in 123 games over the last two seasons. Iorio showed plenty of mature, two-way ability early into his career – enough to earn call-ups to the NHL roster in both of his pro years so far, though it’s only resulted in one assist across nine games.
Iorio has just three points in nine AHL games this year, but could still stand for a strong chance at ice time behind a depleted Capitals blue-line behind John Carlson and Rasmus Sandin. He’ll most likely step in for Dylan McIlrath, who’s slotted onto the third-pair for eight games this season and recorded two assists. McIlrath and Iorio could also cede ice time to Matt Roy when he returns from an October 12th injury.
Capitals Re-Assign Vincent Iorio
After sustaining an injury in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Capitals rookie defenseman Vincent Iorio is ready to return. That’s good news for their AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, who are still alive in the Calder Cup Playoffs and will add his services for the remainder of the season, per a team announcement.
Washington picked up Iorio from the Western Hockey League’s Brandon Wheat Kings in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft, going 55th overall. He’s seen limited major-league action in each of the past two seasons, recording an assist and a +1 rating in nine games while playing an extremely minimal role, averaging 11:20 per game.
The 21-year-old was forced into playoff action for the Caps after Nick Jensen and Rasmus Sandin went down with injuries near the end of the regular season, but logged just two shifts in Game 1 of the first round against the Rangers. He sustained an upper-body injury that knocked him out of the remainder of the four-game sweep.
Iorio, a 6’3″ right-shot defender, has been a good two-way force for the most dominant team in the AHL over the past two years. Since turning pro, the British Columbia native has six goals, 36 points and a +43 rating in 123 games for the Bears. He had a goal and four assists in 15 games for Hershey in last year’s run to the Calder Cup.
A strong passer and breakout puck-mover, Iorio will be in contention to land a spot on the Caps’ blue line next season. He has two seasons remaining on his entry-level contract with a $814K cap hit.
Capitals Assign Seven Players To The AHL
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.