Capitals’ Ryan Leonard Out With An Upper-Body Injury
After last night’s shootout loss against the Anaheim Ducks, Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery updated the media, saying that forward Ryan Leonard is “going to be out” with upper-body injuries (via Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post). No additional recovery timeline was provided, though that should change relatively quickly with the Capitals returning home from the road trip.
Although it only happened last night, Leonard’s injury has already become the subject of debate. The rookie forward was coming behind the net in the offensive zone and was intercepted by a vicious hit from Ducks defenseman Jacob Trouba, while already being engaged with Olen Zellweger. He was clearly in a vulnerable position to receive a hit, though it was technically clean contact, as no penalty was assessed on the play.
Despite typically being isolated on Washington’s third forward unit, Leonard had scored seven goals and 18 points in 29 games with a +7 rating, averaging 13:20 of ice time per game. Leonard’s line was far from the best performing on the Capitals, though they had averaged a 50.8% xGoals% according to MoneyPuck. Missing any amount of time will ultimately have some impact on the 20-year-old’s development.
The Capitals were understandably upset postgame. Speaking with Sammi Silber of The Hockey News, veteran winger Tom Wilson said, “I could see it coming. He knows exactly what he was doing. Kid’s in a vulnerable spot and Leno’s obviously banged up.” Despite the two teams only matching up twice in any given season, Washington has likely already circled January 5th on the calendar when the Ducks come to play at Capital One Arena.
Capitals Sign EBUG Parker Milner To PTO For Friday’s Game
The Capitals won’t have backup Charlie Lindgren available for their road game tonight against the Ducks due to an upper-body injury, the team announced. Due to the late nature of the development and the inability to get a netminder from AHL Hershey to the West Coast in time for the game, they’ve signed retired netminder Parker Milner to a professional tryout to dress as the backup to Logan Thompson.
Milner isn’t nearly as inexperienced as recent EBUG folk heroes like David Ayres or Scott Foster. The new CBA introduced legislation that mandated teams must now employ an emergency backup as a team employee, rather than the previous system of the league having one name sit at the arena every night to enter action for either team if necessary. These can’t be names with NHL experience, nor can they have played pro hockey in the last three years, but they can be relatively fresh names who routinely serve as extra practice goalies for the club to stay fresh.
Milner, 35, last played in the 2019-20 season but is a familiar face to the Capitals organization. He spent the last four years of his career as a minor-league farmhand, splitting time between Hershey and ECHL South Carolina, and was even signed to an NHL contract in the latter half of the 2018-19 campaign so that he could serve as the Caps’ emergency third goalie for that year’s playoffs.
The Pittsburgh native was an accomplished collegiate netminder, logging a .919 SV%, 2.23 GAA, six shutouts, and a 64-20-5 record in 93 appearances across four seasons for Boston College from 2009 to 2013. He was the backup when they won the national championship in 2010 and helped them to three consecutive Hockey East titles. In his junior season in 2012, his first as the starter, he took them back to the national championship and was named tournament MVP.
While he never reached the NHL, he did have a successful pro career. He was a two-time ECHL All-Star and won the league’s Goalie of the Year honors while with South Carolina in 2018. He wrapped up his pro career with a .916 SV%, 2.44 GAA, 19 shutouts, and a 143-79-17 record in 245 ECHL appearances. He also got in 30 reps in the AHL, logging a .902 SV% and 3.02 GAA with a 13-12-2 record.
Capitals’ Justin Sourdif, John Carlson Out With Injury
The Washington Capitals declared forward Justin Sourdif and defenseman John Carlson as out just minutes before Wendseday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks. Sourdif was a game-time decision and missed warmups. He has a lower-body injury sustained late in Tuesday’s win over Los Angeles. Carlson took warmups but was ultimately forced out by an upper-body injury.
The Capitals returned Nic Down to the lineup in Sourdif’s absence. Dowd was activated off of injured reserve earlier in the day after missing the last eight games with a lower-body injury. He scored five points in 19 games before sustaining the injury. Chisholm has one point, two penalty minutes, and a plus-one in 10 games. He has operated as Washington’s extra defender all year, after posting 12 points and a minus-five in 66 games with the Minnesota Wild last season.
Sourdif is in the midst of a four-game scoring drought after posting four points in four games in mid-November. Even in that slump, he has earned upwards of 17 and 18 minutes of ice time in recent games. He’s beginning to carve out a prominent role in the Capitals’ bottom-six after joining the team in a summer trade that sent a second-round and sixth-round pick back to the Florida Panthers.
Even at 36, Carlson has remained a star defender for the Capitals. He has 23 points in 26 games this season, tied with Jakob Chychrun for most on the blue-line. Carlson has also recorded a plus-10, 38 blocked shots, and 59 shots on goal. He and Chychrun give Washington two strong offensive-defensemen on two different pairings – a big part of what’s earned the Capitals the fourth-most goals (91) in the NHL this season.
Capitals To Activate Nic Dowd, Reassign Bogdan Trineyev
The Washington Capitals should be getting a boost to their bottom-six tonight against the San Jose Sharks. According to Sammi Silber of the DC Backcheck, the Capitals have activated Nic Dowd from the injured reserve and assigned Bogdan Trineyev to the AHL’s Hershey Bears in a corresponding roster move.
Dowd has been participating in a few skates over the last couple of days, but hasn’t played since mid-November. The 11-year veteran has been recovering from an upper-body injury since November 17th, missing eight games in the process.
Before his absence, Dowd was again his steady self down the middle for Washington. He typically centered a line between Justin Sourdif and Brandon Duhaime, and the trio combined for a 53.3% xGoals% according to MoneyPuck.
Regarding the boxcar stats, Dowd was relatively quiet, scoring one goal and five points in 19 games with a 51.0% success rate in the faceoff dot. He’s additionally averaged nearly two hits per game and has managed a 94.6% on-ice save percentage at even strength — far and away the best on the team for those who have played in more than 10 games.
Meanwhile, Trineyev’s recall lasts exactly one week, without an NHL debut. He’ll return to the Bears, where he’s gotten off to the best start of his career, scoring six goals and 12 points in 15 games. To put that production into context, the former 117th overall pick finished last season with 14 goals and 22 points in 62 games. Should he continue his pace, which admittedly is unrealistic, Trineyev would more than double last year’s performance if he plays in 62 or more games.
Latest On Nic Dowd
- Washington Capitals forward Nic Dowd missed his eighth consecutive game due to an upper-body injury last night, and The Hockey News’ Sammi Silber relayed word from head coach Spencer Carbery who said there is currently no timetable for when Dowd might return. Dowd, 35, has been a reliable fourth-line center in Washington for more than a half-decade, dating back to when Washington signed him in July of 2018. His loss as a defensive specialist is a significant one for the Capitals: he leads the team in shorthanded ice time per game by a wide margin and even got down-ballot Selke Trophy consideration in each of the last two seasons.
Capitals Recall Bogdan Trineyev, Place Nic Dowd On IR
The Washington Capitals have awarded one of their top AHL scorers with the first NHL call-up of his career. Winger Bogdan Trineyev has been recalled after recording six points and 15 shots on goal in the Hershey Bears’ last six games. Trineyev is up to 12 points in 15 games this season, second-most on the team.
Washington has placed Nic Dowd on injured reserve, retroactive to his last game on November 17th, to create the roster space for Trineyev’s recall. Dowd has missed the last four games with an upper-body injury. He appears to be headed for a fifth absence, after being dubbed a game-time decision for Wednesday’s match against the Winnipeg Jets, the same designation he carried for Monday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, per Sammi Silber of The Hockey News in her newsletter, DCBackcheck.
Trineyev is expected to be listed as Washington’s extra forward on Wednesday. The Capitals will stick with Sonny Milano and Ethen Frank on their fourth-line wings. That duo has been red-hot as of late, with three points and five points over the last three games respectively.
A chance to be close with the NHL lineup will still be a nice reward for Trineyev, who seems to be amid his first true breakout in North America. He has held up near point-per-game scoring through the early season after posting seven points in eight games of last year’s Calder Cup Playoffs. Trineyev had previously only scored 42 points in 149 AHL games, riding a slow climb through Hershey’s lineup that was marked by incremental improvements. Trineyev played in 53 games in Russia’s KHL before moving over to the AHL full-time in 2023. He scored 13 points in his final 39 KHL games, his only scoring in the league.
Trineyev is a strong, skilled power-forward, standing at 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. He has a hard shot and soft hands – and has grown his ability to get involved in play significantly over his first two full AHL seasons. Washington will now recognize that growth by providing the 23-year-old a chance to learn from NHL veterans.
Dowd To Miss A Third Game With Upper-Body Injury
- Capitals center Nic Dowd was a full participant in practice today but will miss his third straight game tonight, relays Sammi Silber of The Hockey News. The 35-year-old has missed the last two contests due to an upper-body injury. Dowd has a goal and four assists in 19 games so far this season while logging over 15 minutes per night of playing time. Sonny Milano has played the last two games in Dowd’s absence and is expected to stay in the lineup for their game tonight against Tampa Bay.
Upper-Body Injury For Dowd
- Capitals center Nic Dowd missed tonight’s game against Edmonton due to an upper-body injury, relays NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti (Twitter link). The 35-year-old is in the first season of a two-year, $6MM deal but has struggled offensively. After notching double-digit goals in each of the last five years, Dowd has just one through his first 19 outings. Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post adds (Twitter link) that the middleman won’t accompany the team to Montreal for their game on Thursday and will be evaluated further.
John Carlson Out With Upper-Body Injury
- On the flip side of New Jersey’s game tonight, the Washington Capitals are playing without their longest-tenured defenseman. Before the game, Bailey Johnson of the Washington Post reported that blueliner John Carlson is dealing with an upper-body injury, and he didn’t participate in tonight’s contest. Fortunately, there’s no indication it’s expected to be a long-term issue for Carlson, who could return to the action in the Capitals’ next game.
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Capitals Name Patrick Wellar Assistant Coach
Nov. 12: Wellar has had his interim tag removed, per Johnson. He replaces Love, who was fired following a one-year suspension by the league in reference to allegations of domestic abuse.
Sep. 27: The Capitals have promoted Patrick Wellar to their NHL coaching staff on an interim basis, Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post reports. It will be his first NHL role after spending the past several years working as an assistant for Washington’s AHL affiliate in Hershey.
Wellar will ensure the Capitals maintain a four-person bench staff to begin the campaign. Assistant Mitch Love, who primarily works with the team’s defensemen, was placed on leave two weeks ago pending the results of a league investigation into an off-ice incident involving his personal conduct that predated his time with the organization.
The 41-year-old Wellar will now do the same, Johnson said. While going out of one’s way to name an interim head coach during a short-term absence isn’t uncommon, uprooting an assistant from an AHL affiliate is an indication that the club doesn’t expect Love to return anytime soon.
Wellar is entering his eighth year in the organization, all of which have been spent in his everyday assistant role with Hershey. In doing so, he’s been a part of one of the best-run development ladders in the league regarding team success. The Bears won back-to-back Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024 and haven’t finished the regular season with a sub-.500 record during his tenure.
The Saskatchewan native also spent six years of his playing career in the Caps organization with AHL Hershey and ECHL South Carolina from 2008-14. He won a Calder Cup while on Hershey’s blue line in 2010, appearing in all 21 postseason games alongside future NHL fixtures John Carlson, Jay Beagle, Karl Alzner, and Mathieu Perreault.
According to Johnson, the Caps have also named a replacement for the replacement. Veteran coach Brent Thompson – the father of Sabres star Tage Thompson – will step in to cover Wellar’s responsibilities with Hershey. The 54-year-old is a former ECHL Coach of the Year and spent 10 years as the bench boss for AHL Bridgeport in the Islanders organization in two separate stints between 2011 and 2023. He spent the past two seasons as an assistant under Greg Cronin in Anaheim but was not retained by the Ducks for the 2025-26 season.