Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Capitals Rumors

Josh Morrissey To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

at CDT | by 1 Comment

3:55pm: Morrissey has avoided a suspension altogether, instead receiving a fine from the Department of Player Safety in the sum of $8,467.74. That was the maximum allowable under the CBA for what the league is calling unsportsmanlike conduct.

10:49am: The Washington Capitals are in the middle of another Department of Player Safety hearing, but this time it’s not Tom Wilson’s fault. Instead, Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey will be talking to the league about his incident last night with T.J. Oshie, in which he slammed the Capitals forward to the ice after the puck had rolled away. Morrissey was suspended last spring for cross-checking, meaning he’ll be treated as a repeat offender. The hearing is taking place this afternoon, meaning a ruling should come down before the Jets take on Buffalo tomorrow night.

Morrissey, 23, has developed into one of the premiere two-way defensemen in the league even if he is a little overshadowed by more well-known players in Winnipeg. Selected 13th overall in 2013 he has steadily been given more and more responsibility by head coach Paul Maurice and now averages more ice time than every Jet except Dustin Byfuglien. Losing him for any length of time would certainly hurt Winnipeg’s chances, though they may be positioned better than anyone in the league to fill available minutes.

Interestingly this hearing comes at a time when the Jets are already missing Dmitry Kulikov on the left side, meaning young Sami Niku could be the first option should Morrissey receive a suspension. Niku has been waiting patiently for his first chance this season, but is an impressive talent in his own right that should be getting ice time at either the NHL or AHL level.

As for Oshie, the Capitals were off today so there is no official announcement of his status. If he suffered a major injury on the play the Department of Player Safety will likely impose an even stiffer penalty on Morrissey, but it’s not clear yet whether he’ll be back on the ice for their next game.

Braden Holtby Out, Capitals To Dress Emergency Backup

at CDT | by 2 Comments

In an unexpected twist, the Washington Capitals – on the road in Winnipeg to face the Jets tonight – will be without starting goaltender Braden Holtby. The Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan was the first to report that Holtby had been ruled out and that backup Pheonix Copley would get the start, with an emergency backup suiting up for the Caps. TSN’s Brian Munz adds that it is an upper-body injury for Holtby, although it remains unclear how and when the injury occurred and to what extent.

Washington will put their trust in Copley for a second game in a row, as the 26-year-old gets set to make just his eighth career NHL appearance. Copley won the Capitals’ backup job by default in training camp, but has performed up to expectations thus far. In five games, he has three wins, a .904 save percentage, and a 2.91 goals against average. However, Copley faces a tough test, going up against the talented Jets after facing the Minnesota Wild just last night.

Regardless of how Copley performs this evening, it’s fair to say that he will stay in net barring an injury. The Capitals will dress local emergency backup Gavin McHale as their second-string option tonight, reports Caps radio host Ben Raby. McHale is the goaltending coach for the women’s hockey team at the nearby University of Manitoba. The 31-year-old is a Manitoba alumni himself and played two seasons in the WHL with the Seattle Thunderbirds and Lethbridge Hurricanes. Even at a hulking 6’7″, Washington is unlikely to stick McHale in the net unless there are extremely extenuating circumstances.

Meanwhile, the concern for the Capitals is far beyond just one result and no one will blame them for dropping tonight’s match-up in Winnipeg, as they were underdogs even with Holtby in net. Instead, the focus is on the starter and his injury moving forward. Perhaps more than any team in the NHL this season, Washington can ill-afford a long-term injury to their starting goaltender. Khushudyan indicates that the injury is not serious and Holtby is considered “day-to-day”, but the ailment is enough that he could not even dress as the backup tonight. We will likely know more in the coming days.

Reactions To Tom Wilson’s Suspension Reduction

at CDT | by 15 Comments

When a polarizing player like Tom Wilson ends up on the winning side of a suspension appeal, the response from the masses is predictably negative. Wilson’s latest dirty hit, a check to the head of St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist, was as bad as any in Wilson’s murky history and few batted an eye at the resulting 20-game suspension. Yet, his appeal’s final stage landed with a neutral arbitrator who took issue with the NHL Department of Player Safety’s use of a multiplier that was not rooted in the Collective Bargaining Agreement nor was it supported by precedent. Just like that, Wilson’s suspension was reduced to 14 games and he is right back on the ice tonight for the Washington Capitals. Unsurprisingly, fans, pundits, and competitors alike are not impressed with the decision:

  • One of the few happy to see Wilson back early is Washington GM Brian MacLellan and even he is treading carefully on the subject. MacLellan sat down with NHL.com’s Dan Rose and made it clear that Wilson has to change his game if he wants to stay on the ice. “We’ve talked about it numerous times,” MacLellan said, “there are certain hits that he just has to stop trying… He’s going to have to avoid some hits and he’s going to have to let up on some hits also. You can’t have the same force because he hits hard and it looks bad, and sometimes he’s going to be evaluated on the force.” For MacLellan and the Caps – who signed Wilson to a massive six-year, $31MM contract this off-season – they simply need Wilson to stay active and contribute, as they’re paying him to do. “At the end of the day, missing 15, 16 games, it can’t happen,” Wilson himself commented on the incident. The question now is whether or not MacLellan and the team can actually influence Wilson into changing his playing style.
  • One fellow player frustrated with both the process and result is Pittsburgh Penguins veteran Matt Cullen. Cullen, 42, has been around longer than virtually every other player in the NHL today and knows a thing or two about how the game operates, or at least how it should. Cullen told Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that “When the next CBA comes up, that’s something we (should) address… I don’t think anybody is real happy with it.” Mackey points out that Cullen is unlikely to still be around when the next agreement is negotiated, but the opinion of a respected player still carries weight. Cullen is disappointed not only in the reduction of the suspension – the rival Penguins are no fans of Wilson – but more so in how it occurred. “I don’t think it’s a good look for our league, for our game to need to go to appeals… You’d like the headlines to be about the play on the ice and the players, not the other (stuff) going on outside of the game… I think most guys probably don’t love that — that it got reduced in that manner as far as going to appeal after appeal.” Interestingly, neutral arbitration is very much a player-friendly process that the NHLPA fought for. The idea is to take away any bias from the league by allowing a third party to review all of the facts independently. Yet, Cullen makes a good point that the ordeal is lengthy and not ideal optically either. Especially given that the Department of Player Safety is run mostly by former players, perhaps Cullen speaks on behalf of all players that in the next CBA they would be better off with eliminating the independent arbitrator.
  • And what of the arbitrator himself? Shyam Das has been a thorn in the side of the NHL, but likely won’t be for much longer. While an independent arbitrator, Das is employed by the league for his services. In overturning Wilson’s suspension, Das has now decided for the player in each of his three cases for the league: Wilson, Nashville Predators forward Austin Watson, and then-Calgary Flames defenseman Dennis Wideman. Each of those three cases were high-profile and concerning a sensitive subject; Wideman attacked a referee, Watson was accused of domestic assault, and Wilson is the league’s most notorious “thug”. In each instance, the NHL would have very much liked to have seen their decision hold, only to have Das contradict them. Das was fired by Major League Baseball for similarly one-sided decisions and his time with the NHL will likely end the same way.

Washington Capitals Loan Axel Jonsson-Fjallby To Sweden

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

There were reports earlier this year out of Sweden that Axel Jonsson-Fjallby would exercise his European Assignment Clause to return home for the remainder of this season, but the Washington Capitals shot them down saying their young prospect had no plans on leaving “at this time.” That time seems to have passed now, since the Capitals have now loaned Jonsson-Fjallby to Djurgardens of the SHL. Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post tweets that the move is “not ideal” for the Capitals, noting that they wanted him playing in their minor league system.

The 20-year old Jonsson-Fjallby scored just three points in his 16 games with the Hershey Bears, but could likely still benefit from being close at hand for the Capitals development program. Instead, he’ll head back to Sweden where he finished last season with a strong playoff performance and will likely be given more responsibility. The fifth-round pick has already come a long way from his humble draft beginnings in 2016, including winning a silver medal with the Swedish World Junior Championship team last year. There is still plenty of work before he becomes an NHL player, but he’s well on his way to a successful professional career already.

Washington still hasn’t received a single NHL appearance from anyone they drafted in 2016, and their lack of development is starting to show on the fringes of the roster. Even Jakub Vrana, the full-time player most recently drafted by the Capitals still hasn’t established himself as a real force in the league and he stands alone in terms of real roster options from the last five drafts. While several other players will surely eventually establish themselves at the NHL level, the Capitals will need a breakthrough sooner rather than later if they’re to keep up their championship pedigree.

Tom Wilson’s Suspension Reduced To 14 Games

at CDT | by 25 Comments

The neutral arbitrator has ruled, and Tom Wilson’s 20-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist has been reduced to 14. The Washington Capitals forward is now immediately eligible to return to the lineup, given he has already missed 16 games this season. The reduction will however save Wilson nearly $400K in salary, compared to what he would have had to forfeit for the entire 20-game ban.

The arbitrator in this case was Shyam Das, the same that had reduced Austin Watson’s suspension for domestic violence earlier this year, and had previously been fired from the MLB for his reversal of Ryan Braun’s suspension. Das provided a 41-page decision, which concluded that the manner in which the NHL’s Department of Player Safety arrived at the 20-game mark was incorrect. Instead, Das provided evidence on how he arrived at 14 games:

…I find that the League’s decision that Wilson violated Rule 48 was supported by substantial evidence, but that the length of the 20-game suspension imposed was not supported by substantial evidence. As remedy, consistent with my findings, I conclude that Wilson’s suspension should be reduced to 14 games. I have arrived at this length by treating his most recent prior 3 playoff game suspension as the equivalent of 6 regular season games, as [George] Parros did, doubling that based on all relevant circumstances to 12 games–which certainly constitutes more severe punishment consistent with the CBA–and adding 2 games, as Parros did, based on the injury to Sundqvist.

Wilson will now have the eyes of the DoPS on him every time he steps on the ice, given the incredible frequency he’s served suspensions over the last few seasons. Every physical confrontation will put him at risk, as even slight contact with the head could result in a lengthy suspension. That’s a tough spot to be in for a player who relies so heavily on his physical play to contribute on the ice, meaning he may have to adjust his play style to continue his effectiveness. Unfortunately, that physical play has been Wilson’s calling card for his entire hockey career. It earned him a first-round selection in 2012 despite his pedestrian point totals in junior, and it delivered a six-year $31MM contract this summer when he became a restricted free agent.

This reduction is obviously a good outcome for Wilson, but the Capitals surely would have liked it to come a bit sooner. The team is struggling to repeat on their excellent 2017-18 season and now find themselves sitting near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division standings. That may not last for long, but after losing their last two games they now sit at just 7-6-3 on the season. They’ll hope a return of one of the 2018 playoff heroes will put them back on a path for the playoffs.

Minor Transactions: 11/12/18

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The NHL has just four games on the schedule for tonight, meaning teams will have plenty of opportunity to make changes to their rosters in preparation for the rest of the week. We’ll keep track of all those minor moves right here:

  • Aaron Ness has been sent back to the Hershey Bears, meaning Jonas Siegenthaler looks to have secured a spot with the Washington Capitals for the time being. With Brooks Orpik on long-term injured reserve, Siegenthaler was given his first opportunity at the NHL level and played just over 12 minutes. Ness meanwhile will return to the minor leagues where he has spent the majority of his career, and continue his role as a veteran leader on the Bears’ blue line.
  • The Calgary Flames have assigned Anthony Peluso to the Stockton Heat of the AHL, returning the 29-year old winger after just one game. Peluso has been up and down several times this year, and will likely continue to serve as an injury call-up for the rest of the season.
  • Nick Paul is on his way back to the AHL after the Ottawa Senators reassigned him today. Paul has played six games at both the AHL and NHL level this season, and looks poised to split the year between the two leagues. The 23-year old hasn’t been able to establish himself with the Senators as a full-time option, but does brings some size and physicality when needed.

Brooks Orpik Placed On Long-Term Injured Reserve

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Washington Capitals are pressed right up against the salary cap this season, and because of this have been forced to use long-term injured reserve once again. Brooks Orpik has been placed on LTIR, meaning the veteran defenseman will not be able to play for at least another six games as he works he way back from a lower-body injury. The team is also missing John Carlson from practice today with a lower-body injury, meaning they have recalled Jonas Siegenthaler and Aaron Ness from the minor leagues to fill in. According to CapFriendly’s calculations, the team is now exceeding the upper salary cap ceiling by using the flexibility created by LTIR.

Orpik, 38, went through an interesting series of transactions this summer that started when he was included in a trade to the Colorado Avalanche. The Avalanche quickly explained that they had only taken his contract on in order to keep the price of goaltender Philipp Grubauer low, and tried to trade Orpik to someone who would actually use him. When they couldn’t find a taker, Colorado bought out the remainder of Orpik’s contract and allowed him to seek out a new deal on the open market. That deal came back with the Capitals, for the low price of $1MM plus some performance bonuses. That was enough, given he is still earning $1.5MM from the Avalanche this year and next.

Though he was much less expensive this time around, the Capitals haven’t been pushing Orpik to the press box as a veteran extra. Instead, he’s played in ten games already this season and has recorded two points. That even included a goal, his first regular season tally since the 2015-16 season. Even though his minutes have been reduced, Orpik is still a legitimate piece of the Washington blue line and will be needed at other times this season. For now though, he’ll have to wait on the sideline and recover while the team inserts young Siegenthaler into the lineup.

Nathan Walker, Matt Donovan Placed On Waivers

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Monday: Friedman reports that all three players have cleared waivers today, meaning Walker will be sent to the minor leagues. Donovan meanwhile has signed a two-year deal with the Predators and can now play in the NHL this season.

Sunday: Elliotte Friedman reports that two players were put on waivers today, as the Washington Capitals have waived forward Nathan Walker, while the Nashville Predators waived defenseman Matt Donovan. Friedman also notes that the Calgary Flames have placed Yasim Ehliz on unconditional waivers with the purpose of releasing him from his contract.

With Washington Capitals’ Travis Boyd expected to be activated off of LTIR shortly, someone on the roster had to go and with the impressive play the Capitals have received from recent waiver claim Dmitrij Jaskin, Walker was the only option left to put on waivers. Walker was placed on waivers by the Capitals last year and he was claimed by Edmonton on Dec. 1. However, the Oilers decided not to keep him and placed him back on waivers on Dec. 20, allowing the Capitals to claim him back and send him to Hershey. The team hopes it can slip him past without going through the same troubles this year. Walker only managed to appear in three games this season with just an assist, so putting him on waivers made the most sense.

Donovan’s situation was a little more confusing as he isn’t even on the team’s roster as he signed an AHL deal with the Milwaukee Admirals, the Predators AHL affiliate. However, the fact he’s on waivers means that Nashville has signed the 28-year-old blueliner to a NHL-level contract, which would require the team to send him through waivers. Early reports suggest the team has signed him to a one-year, two-way deal. Donovan, a fourth-round pick in 2008, played much of the early part of his career with the New York Islanders organization, including a 52-game stint with the Islanders in the 2013-14 season even though most of his career was spent in the AHL. He played the past two years in the SHL before joining Milwaukee. He has six goals and six assists in 13 games so far this year.

Calgary originally signed Ehliz back in June after the 25-year winger wrapped up his eighth-year in the German DEL. The undersized forward, however, didn’t make the Flames NHL team and has had trouble cracking the Stockton Heat lineup in the AHL as he has only appeared in four games with no points and a minus-5. It’s likely Ehliz would prefer to return to Europe to continue his career.

Minor Transactions: 11/04/18

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

It could be a quiet day on the NHL docket today with just three games on the schedule, but many teams will start making moves as early as today for the upcoming week. Check back throughout the day to see what moves teams have made today.

  • The Minnesota Wild have announced they have recalled defenseman Nate Prosser from the Iowa Wild after playing two games there on a conditioning stint. Prosser is trying to work his way back into the lineup as he has appeared in just one game for the Wild and only played a total of three minutes. The 32-year-old averaged 13:26 of ATOI last season for the Wild.
  • The Washington Capitals announced they had assigned defenseman Aaron Ness to the Hershey Bears of the AHL. Ness was recalled Thursday to fill in as a seventh defenseman as Brooks Orpik was out of the lineup. With Ness returning to Hershey, that likely suggests that Orpik may be ready to return to the lineup. The 28-year-old Ness has played 11 games for the Bears this year, posting four assists.
  • The Anaheim Ducks have brought up center Sam Carrick, per a team release.  It’s his first stint with the big club this season after he cleared waivers late in September.  The 26-year-old has nine points in eight games with the AHL’s San Diego Gulls while leading the team in goals and points.  If Carrick gets into a game with the Ducks, it will be his first NHL action since 2015-16.

CBA Notes: Timeline, World Cup, Fehr, Playoffs, Scheduling, Orr

at CDT | by 2 Comments

The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement is not a topic that most hockey fans want to hear much about, as in its recent history it has become synonymous with lockouts and missed games (and seasons). Yet, it isn’t ever going away and details are already emerging about when the next round of negotiations could begin. The current CBA technically does not expire until September 15th after the 2021-22 season and can even be extended on a yearly basis after that point. However, both the league and the players’ association can opt out ahead of the 2020-21 season with notice given in September of 2019. That date is less than a year out, making discussions of the current state of NHL labor relations prevalent now even if the CBA ends up intact for many years still to come. Currently, the league is not planning to use their option in September, according to Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman. This is supported by claims that commissioner Gary Bettman has encouraged the NHLPA to figure out their stance as soon as possible. If the league is to hold an off-season World Cup tournament in 2020, as they did in 2016, they do not want to do so ahead of a season that could potentially be held up by a player strike. While the players have until September to make a decision on opting out of the current CBA ahead of the 2020-21 season, Friedman speculates that the league will need to know their intentions by the All-Star break this year or thereabouts if they are to begin planning the next World Cup. As Friedman notes, the international stage is very important to the players and with the NHL currently looking unlikely to attend the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, China, the players may not want to risk their only other international experience, the World Cup. Will it be enough motivation to keep the CBA intact a while longer? We should know that answer before the end of the current season.

  • When CBA talks do finally re-open, Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos states his belief that both sides are determined to avoid a work stoppage this time around. Although they will have to get over their recent tumultuous negotiating history, which has cost owners, players, and fans alike a season and a half since the turn of the century, as well as sort through some serious issues, the fact that both sides feel a shutdown would be a worst case scenario this time around is a positive note for everyone with a stake in the game.
  • Despite recent remarks that were inferred as signaling a coming end to his career, NHLPA Director Donald Fehr is not going anywhere, per Friedman. Fehr indicated that he would only be around for one or two more years, but walked back those comments by telling Friedman that he will stay on through the next CBA negotiation, whenever that is. The 70-year-old executive is well-respected if not feared for his hardball tactics, but has been optimistic about the next round of negotiations when approached about the topic recently. Fehr faces the tough choice of whether to opt out in 2020 (and retire sooner) or keep the peace for a couple more years instead.
  • One CBA topic gaining support is a change to playoff structure, reports Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. However, it likely is not what many would consider to be the most pressing change. Johnston says that there is a growing movement among owners in favor of adding more teams to the playoff format. The NHL has operated with more than half of its teams making the postseason for many years now, but once Seattle joins the league as the 32nd member, that 16-team structure will now have a balance of exactly half the teams qualifying. Johnston believes that owners are in favor of a play-in structure, similar to the one recently adopted by Major League Baseball, that would hypothetically include two or four more teams to the postseason through do-or-die play-in games. Interestingly, this movement may never reach the bargaining table. Johnston notes that while some owners are in favor of this move, others, and most importantly Bettman, are happy with the current structure and are not seeking to change anything in the near future.
  • Changes to the playing schedule, particularly game times, could also be an intriguing CBA topic. Stephen Whyno of the Associated Press writes that many foreign-born NHL players are in favor of more frequent matinee games. Speaking with the Washington Capitals’ Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller and the Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov, Whyno found that many NHL imports feel that earlier games would be far more convenient for foreign fans and could help to grow the game overseas. While the league has proven to be very invested in expanding the game in Europe and beyond, afternoon games on weekdays are an impossibility, while afternoon games on weekends in the first half of the season would pit the NHL against NFL and NCAA football far more often. The players may be fine with losing domestic television ratings in exchange for increased visibility overseas, but the league likely will not be. In need of a new TV deal in 2021, the NHL is unlikely to hurt the market value of their TV rights by expressing an interest in more frequently taking on football, the most popular sport in the United States.
  • For his part, Bobby Orr thinks that another work stoppage is likely. Orr told The Canadian Press that he would be “surprised” if there isn’t a lockout or strike before the next CBA is agreed upon, calling it a “tough” situation. “I think there are concerns on both sides… I hope there isn’t… I hope I’m wrong. We don’t need another lockout”, Orr said. Orr is not only one of the game’s greatest legends, but through his agency, The Orr Hockey Group, gleams plenty of information about the state of the league. If Orr says that it’s going to be tough, he’s probably right. The only hope is that termination can be put off a while longer and issues can be worked out in the meantime.

Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top