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Capitals Recall Vincent Iorio, Matthew Phillips

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The Washington Capitals have recalled forward Matthew Phillips and defenseman Vincent Iorio to the NHL roster (Twitter link). This move brings Phillips back to the NHL after being sent down earlier in the week and marks the second call-up of Iorio’s career.

Iorio’s first call-up came in March of last season and awarded him with the first three NHL games of his career. He managed one assist in those appearances while averaging just over 14 minutes of ice time. He’s yet to fight his way back into the Capitals lineup, instead spending all of this season with the AHL’s Hershey Bears – scoring four goals, 14 points, and 30 penalty minutes in 60 appearances, a step down from his 22 points in 63 games as an AHL rookie last year.

But he’ll be leaned on once again, with fellow defenseman Ethan Bear out indefinitely after entering the NHL Player Assistance Program. Bear was serving as Washington’s seventh defenseman and hadn’t played since March 13th. Iorio will step into that depth role, looking to compete with Alexander Alexeyev for a spot on the team’s lineup.

Phillips’ recall could be an indication of Sonny Milano’s availability. Milano is working his way back from an upper-body injury suffered in Washington’s Sunday win over the Winnipeg Jets. He missed the team’s Tuesday night game but has continued appearing at the team’s practices, including taking the ice during their off-day this morning. Washington will test Milano’s readiness ahead of their Thursday matchup against Toronto, with Phillips as their fill-in if he can’t go.

Ethan Bear Enters NHL Player Assistance Program, Out Indefinitely

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The NHL has announced that Washington Capitals defenseman Ethan Bear will be out indefinitely while receiving care from the NHL Player Assistance Program (Twitter link). He’s scored four points in 24 games since making his season debut in late December.

Bear’s season kicked off late, with a shoulder injury suffered during the 2023 IIHF World Championship lingering through the first half of the year. He became a free agent after his surgery – after the Vancouver Canucks went chose not to extend a qualifying offer – and he held off negotiations on a new deal until December. There were reportedly plenty of teams in the mix on Bear, including Vancouver. But he ultimately decided on Washington, moving to his fourth team in the last three years with a two-year, $4.125MM contract. He made his season debut on December 31st and scored his first goal (and so far, his only goal) of the year nine games later.

This year is Bear’s fifth season in a full-time NHL role, following his rookie season in 2019-20 when he scored 21 points in 71 games. That has stood as his career-high in scoring, though he came within a few points when he scored 16 in 61 games last year. Bear has established himself as a solid bottom-four option at the NHL level, averaging 18-and-a-half minutes of ice time through 275 career games. Alexander Alexeyev has gained a bigger role in his absence, recording one goal and three points through 28 games this season.

Afternoon Notes: Kolosov, Milano, Gustafsson

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The Philadelphia Flyers are expected to add goaltender Alexei Kolosov, following the end of his KHL season with Dinamo Minsk. The Russian club officially announced the transfer in a press release thanking Kolosov for his four years with the club (Twitter link).

Kolosov, 22, has established himself as Dimano Minsk’s clear-cut starter over the last two seasons – managing 13 wins and a .912 save percentage in 42 games last season and 22 wins and a .907 in 47 games this year. He’s played ahead of Canadian Dylan Ferguson, who is in his first KHL season after playing in two games with the Ottawa Senators last year.

The Flyers drafted Kolosov in the third round of the 2021 NHL Draft. He was the third goalie selected in that class after both Sebastian Cossa and Jesper Wallstedt were selected in the first round. Kolosov signed his entry-level contract with the Flyers in early July. He was loaned back to Russia soon after, though his contract wasn’t eligible for an entry-level slide, meaning this season has burned the first year of his three-year deal. Kolosov now joins a Flyers team with an open backup spot, stepping into a competition with Felix Sandstrom and Calvin Petersen.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Washington Capitals could add forward Sonny Milano back to the lineup on Tuesday, with head coach Spencer Carbery saying his attendance will be based on how he feels leading up to the game (Twitter link). Milano left the team’s Sunday game against Winnipeg early with an upper-body injury. He will help Washington fill-in for the suspended Tom Wilson, if he’s healthy enough to play.
  • The New York Rangers designated defenseman Erik Gustafsson as day-to-day with an upper-body injury ahead of their Monday morning practice, which Gustafsson missed (Twitter link). Gustafsson seemed to suffer the injury in the team’s Saturday game against the Florida Panthers, taking a high hit from Sam Reinhart. He is questionable for the team’s Tuesday night game against Philadelphia, which could open the door for Brandon Scanlin to make his NHL debut.

Capitals Reassign Matthew Phillips

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The Capitals have returned forward Matthew Phillips to the AHL’s Hershey Bears, according to a statement from the team’s PR department. He was listed as a scratch on the league’s roster report for Sunday’s game against the Jets.

Phillips, 25, had been on the Caps’ roster for only two days since being summoned from Hershey on an emergency loan Friday. However, with T.J. Oshie (upper body) and Aliaksei Protas (lower body) returning from their respective injuries for today’s contest, the conditions necessitating Phillips’ presence in the NHL were no longer met.

Washington needed to either convert Phillips’ recall into a standard one or return him to the minors, choosing the latter option. He played 4:15 against the Hurricanes in Friday’s 7-6 shootout loss, posting a -1 rating and one shot on goal.

However, despite logging the least time on ice of any Capitals skater, he managed to record three individual scoring chances, tied for second in the game, per Natural Stat Trick. Still, Phillips has gone 13 games without a point, last getting on the scoresheet with an assist in a shootout loss to the Stars on Dec. 7.

Including Friday’s contest, Phillips has one goal, four assists, and five points in 31 games split between the Capitals and Penguins. Pittsburgh claimed him off waivers in mid-February after Washington attempted to send him to the minors for the first time this season. He went pointless in three appearances before ending up on the waiver wire again in early March.

The Caps took the opportunity to bring him back to the organization, claiming him off waivers from the Pens shortly before the trade deadline. As they reclaimed him within 30 days of initially losing him on waivers, they could assign him directly to AHL Hershey.

Phillips was strong in limited action with the league-leading Bears this month, posting 1-2–3 with 2 PIMs and a +2 rating in four games. The 2016 sixth-round pick of the Flames has developed into an elite producer at the minor-league level, recording 67-77–144 in 131 games with Calgary’s AHL affiliates between 2021 and 2023 before reaching Group 6 unrestricted free agency last summer.

Signed to a one-year, one-way deal, the 5-foot-7 Phillips will continue to earn his $775K base salary while on assignment to Hershey. He will be an RFA with arbitration eligibility if the Caps issue him a qualifying offer this offseason.

T.J. Oshie, Aliaksei Protas Could Return Tomorrow

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  • In an update on two injured members of the Washington Capitals, Tom Gulitti of the NHL reports that the Capitals are hopeful that forwards T.J. Oshie (upper body) and Aliaksei Protas (lower body) will return to the lineup tomorrow against the Winnipeg Jets. As important members of the team’s top-six, and especially after the results of today’s matchups in the Eastern Conference, Washington will be well positioned moving forward to grab the last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

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Tom Wilson Suspended Six Games For High-Sticking

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Washington Capitals winger Tom Wilson has received a six-game suspension for high-sticking Noah Gregor of the Toronto Maple Leafs, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. Wilson earned a double-minor penalty on the play, which saw him one-handed swing his stick across his body and into Gregor’s face. He was offered an in-person hearing, making him eligible for a suspension longer than five games.

This marks the sixth suspension of Wilson’s career, placing him in elite company among the NHL’s most-suspended players – a list led by Chris Pronger (seven suspensions) and Brad Marchand (eight suspensions). Wilson will have spent a combined 36 games suspended once he’s done with this absence – including his preseason suspension in 2017 and the reduction of his 20-game suspension in 2018 to 14 games. He will forfeit $161,458.32 in salary for high-sticking Gregor, per The Athletic’s Chris Johnston, bringing him to $1.563MM in salary forfeited to suspensions in his career. That’s $100,000 more than Marchand has spent in his path to the most-suspended player in league history.

Despite his long history of punishment, and the fact that he’s spent all 746 games of his career in one place, Wilson hasn’t yet earned the title of most-penalized Washington Capital. That instead belongs to the infamous Dale Hunter, who managed 2,003 penalty minutes in 872 games with the Capitals, in addition to 1,562 penalty minutes in 535 games with other teams. Fellow DOPS-favorite Scott Stevens also ranks ahead of Wilson in all-time penalty minutes, earning 1,628 in just 601 games with the Capitals. Both Hunter (2) and Stevens (14) rank in the top-15 of all-time penalty minutes.

Snapshots: Graves, St. Ivany, Krug, Oshie, Protas

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have shared that defenseman Ryan Graves will be stepping away for a paternity leave, opening the door for rookie Jack St. Ivany to make his NHL debut. St. Ivany has flirted with his inaugural game for much of March, getting moved between the NHL and AHL four different times in the last week. He was clearly motivated by the string of moves, recording a career-high three-point night in his latest AHL game – his first since receiving the first NHL call-up of his career. The performance broke a 10-game scoring drought and accounted for a fifth of St. Ivany’s 15 points on the season. He’ll now have a golden chance to build on the hot night, potentially poised for a big role with Graves’ average of 19 minutes a night now up for grabs.

Other notes from around the league:

  • St. Louis Blues defenseman Torey Krug is expected to return to the lineup on Friday after sititng out with a chest injury on Thursday, per NHL.com’s Jessi Pierce. It was Krug’s first absence of the year, after appearing in the Blues’ first 69 games. He’s managed three goals and 34 points in those games. This is Krug’s first time playing in more than 65 games since the 2017-18 season.  His return is expected to bump Scott Perunovich back out of the lineup.
  • The Washington Capitals will continue to be without T.J. Oshie and Aliaksei Protas, head coach Spencer Carbery told The Hockey News. Both players sat out of the team’s Wednesday night loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Oshie is bearing with an upper-body injury, while Protas has a lingering lower-body injury suffered on March 9th. The team will eagerly anticipate their return, now left to lean on Michael Sgarbossa and Ivan Miroshnichenko as top-six fill-ins.

Capitals Recall Matthew Phillips

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The Capitals announced they’ve recalled right wing Matthew Phillips from AHL Hershey. He is expected to replace winger Tom Wilson in the lineup, who will miss Friday’s game and likely many more as he faces an in-person hearing with the Department of Player Safety today for a high-sticking incident in Wednesday’s 7-3 loss to the Maple Leafs.

The club had 14 forwards on their active roster before the injury. However, three of them – Wilson, T.J. Oshie (upper-body, day-to-day) and Aliaksei Protas (lower-body, day-to-day) – are unavailable or uncertain against the Hurricanes tonight.

Phillips, 25, began the season on an opening-night roster for the first time after inking a one-year, $775K deal with the Caps in free agency. One of the AHL’s most potent offensive threats over the past few seasons, the diminutive forward struggled to adapt to a full-time NHL role, posting only a goal and five points in 27 games and becoming a frequent healthy scratch after the New Year.

That led the Capitals to place him on waivers in mid-February, but he didn’t make it to the minors and was instead claimed by the Penguins. He had minimal impact with Washington’s longtime rival as well, going pointless in three games before serving as a healthy scratch in five straight and landing on waivers once again. Since the subsequent waiver placement was less than 30 days after the Caps lost him, Washington could reclaim and send him directly to AHL Hershey without exposing him to waivers, which they took advantage of.

Unsurprisingly, Phillips has looked like his old self on the best team in the AHL, recording three points and a +2 rating in four games since returning to the Capitals organization earlier this month. The 2016 sixth-round pick of the Flames has 240 points in 269 games since making his AHL debut with Stockton in 2017 and posted over a point-per-game in back-to-back seasons with the Flames’ primary affiliate before earning the one-way deal with Washington last summer.

Despite that level of production, Phillips never got much of a crack at the NHL level with Calgary, only skating in three games and averaging 10:48 with the Flames between 2020 and 2023. While he was a low-risk, high-reward signing for Washington, he was far from a proven commodity, and a lack of production and solid possession metrics in his extended chance earlier this season has likely ended the 5-foot-7 winger’s chances of cracking an NHL roster full-time.

He still carries value for organizations at the minor-league level as a premier talent to play with their top prospects on the farm, and there are certainly worse call-up options in a pinch to fill an offensively-inclined role. If head coach Spencer Carbery doesn’t want to shuffle his other lines, Phillips could directly replace Wilson’s spot on the second line alongside rookie Ivan Miroshnichenko and co-leading scorer Dylan Strome.

The Calgary native will be an RFA with arbitration rights this summer, although he’s a strong candidate to not receive a qualifying offer and reach the open market after reaching UFA status under Group 6 rules last summer.

Tom Wilson Offered In-Person Hearing For High-Sticking

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6:46 p.m.: Wilson’s in-person hearing will be held Friday afternoon, per the department, meaning we’ll get clarity soon on how long he’ll be out of the lineup.

12:05 p.m.: The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has offered Capitals winger Tom Wilson an in-person hearing after he high-sticked Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor in last night’s 7-3 loss. The hearing date has not been announced, but the in-person option allows DoPS to suspend Wilson for six or more games.

Officials assessed Wilson a double minor penalty on the play, which occurred 12:15 into the third period. After engaging in a puck battle with Gregor along the boards, Wilson swung his stick one-handed, striking Gregor in the mouth (video link).

If suspended, it would be his sixth in the last seven years. Wilson, who made his NHL debut in 2013, was suspended on three separate instances in the 2017-18 season, one each in the preseason, regular season, and playoffs. All were less than five games. In the 2018 preseason, however, he was handed down a massive 20-game suspension by the league on a play that injured Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist, but it was later reduced to 14 by an independent arbitrator. His most recent suspension, a seven-gamer, came in March 2021. He’s also been fined five times.

After an injury-plagued 2022-23 campaign, Wilson has played in 66 of 68 games for the Caps this year. His 18:03 ATOI is second among current Caps forwards, while his 17 goals (4th) and 32 points (5th) are also near the top of the team leaderboard. A major minutes-muncher and still a truly impactful player, any long-term absence could significantly inhibit Washington’s chances at reaching the postseason. Their .551 points percentage is tied with the Red Wings for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

T.J. Oshie, Aliaksei Protas Out With Injury

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Before the puck drop in the team’s game tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Washington Capitals announced two injuries to their lineup. In the announcement, the Capitals stated that forward T.J. Oshie is out with an upper-body injury, and Aliaksei Protas is out with a lower-body injury.

Although both players were given a day-to-day injury designation, it is much of the same for Oshie this season. Oshie has only played in 43 of a possible 68 games for the Capitals this season, only managing 11 goals and 19 points in the process. With one more year remaining on his eight-year, $46MM contract after this year, the injury concern is certainly piling up for the veteran forward.

Protas, on the other hand, has sustained much more health than Oshie this season, skating in 65 games for Washington. Earning a five-year, $16.875MM contract extension in January, Protas has turned into quite the playmaker for the Capitals, scoring five goals and 28 points altogether.

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