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Seattle Kraken Claim Dennis Cholowski

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As expected, the Seattle Kraken have reclaimed Dennis Cholowski off waivers from the Washington Capitals according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. The young defenseman had been lost at the beginning of the season without ever actually suiting up for Seattle.

Cholowski, 23, ended up playing in just seven games for the Capitals during his time in Washington, spending more time in the press box than in the lineup. That’s sort of been the story of his career the last few years, as the first-round pick has played just 59 NHL games since the start of 2019-20. That is only a few more than he had as a rookie in 2018-19 when he came almost directly to the Detroit Red Wings lineup in his first year of professional hockey.

It was from Detroit that Cholowski was originally selected by the Kraken in the expansion draft. He ended up on waivers at the beginning of the season though thanks to an overloaded defense corps and ended up heading east. His return to the Kraken depth chart is an interesting one, given where the team now sits in the standings. With the trade deadline approaching, there could be some opportunities for the Seattle front office to flip some of their more veteran defensemen, thus opening up an opportunity for someone like Cholowski.

Still, he’ll have to show more consistency than he has to this point if he wants to lock down a full-time NHL job. Because the Kraken were the only team to put in a claim this time around, he can be immediately assigned to the minor leagues. The team did so, sending him to the Charlotte Checkers, the AHL club they are sharing this season.

Alex Ovechkin Clears COVID Protocol

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Dennis Cholowski Placed On Waivers

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The Washington Capitals have placed Dennis Cholowski on waivers according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, the second time he’s found himself there this season. The Capitals claimed Cholowski from the Seattle Kraken at the beginning of the season and now he could be on his way to another team.

The 23-year-old played just seven games for the Capitals during his stint in Washington, averaging fewer than 14 minutes of ice time whenever he did get into the lineup. It’s been a dramatic fall-off for a player that was selected 20th overall in 2016 and quickly made his way to the NHL. In 2018-19, Cholowski played 52 games as a rookie for the Detroit Red Wings, but has just 59 in the three years since.

It would certainly make sense for the Kraken to put in a claim, adding him back to their depth chart. That said, as a pending restricted free agent that very well may go unqualified, the team may decide to just move on. Cholowski was Seattle’s choice in the expansion draft but already it seems as though that was likely a mistake, given some of the other names available to them at the time.

Perhaps there is still more to come from the 6’2″ defenseman, but given he’ll turn 24 in a few days and has struggled to provide any level of consistency at the NHL level, the minor leagues appear to be in his immediate future.

Tom Wilson, Jonathan Marchessault Added To All-Star Rosters

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The NHL has been forced to make another few changes to the All-Star rosters after recent injuries and COVID results. Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson will be replacing teammate Alex Ovechkin, who tested positive for coronavirus today and will miss the event. Ovechkin, who was supposed to serve as captain of the Metropolitan Division, will pass the “C” to Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers.

It will be Wilson’s first All-Star experience and it comes during the best season of his career. The 27-year-old forward has 13 goals and 31 points in 42 games, a pace that would see him shatter his previous career-high of 44 points in short order. A player who scored just nine goals during his draft year and was selected because of the raw size, aggression, and skating ability he showed, Wilson has developed into a premier power forward in the NHL and looks poised to crack the 20-goal mark for the third time.

On the Pacific Division side, Jonathan Marchessault has been added, though the league did not immediately reveal who he would be replacing. The 31-year-old Vegas Golden Knights forward will also be at the event for the first time, despite several outstanding seasons since he arrived in Sin City. Marchessault has 20 goals and 32 points in 41 games, only trailing Chandler Stephenson for the team lead in overall scoring. One of the original misfits, he’ll get to take the ice at home during the event in Las Vegas this weekend.

Things kick off on Friday night with the NHL All-Star Skills, before a three-game, 3-on-3 tournament Saturday.

Alex Ovechkin Enters COVID Protocol; Tom Wilson To Replace At All-Star Game

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The Washington Capitals have announced that Alex Ovechkin is unavailable for tonight’s game, as he has entered the league’s COVID protocol. The team has also already ruled out Ovechkin’s participation in the All-Star game, based on a positive test result. The team has recalled Brett Leason and Pheonix Copley–who will fill in for the injured Vitek Vanecek–from the taxi squad.

That’s the second All-Star captain that has been forced out of the game, following Nathan MacKinnon’s recent injury that will keep him out of the festivities. Ovechkin was set to captain the Metropolitan Division, a role that will now have to be filled by someone else. According to Emily Kaplan of ESPN, Tom Wilson will be going to the All-Star game in Ovechkin’s place.

More importantly, he’ll also miss tonight’s game against the Edmonton Oilers and be unable to add to his outstanding season totals. The 36-year-old superstar has 29 goals and 29 assists on the year, a scoring rate that had him on pace for his fifth 100-point season and first in more than a decade. Arguably already the greatest goal-scorer of all time, Ovechkin is once again leading the league in even-strength tallies and trails only Chris Kreider and Leon Draisaitl in overall goals.

Given the reduced isolation period, Ovechkin could very well be cleared in time to play on February 8, the first game back for the Capitals after the break. In the meantime, hockey fans won’t get to see him go up against Connor McDavid tonight or participate in events like the hardest shot competition on Friday night.

Washington’s Vitek Vanecek Leaves Game, Emergency Backup On Bench

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Washington Capitals goaltender Vitek Vanecek will be out for the remainder of the team’s game tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins with an upper-body injury, the team announced. Taxi squad goalie Hunter Shepard, who was in the building, is on the bench as the emergency backup.

Vanecek collided with Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen in the crease during the first period, in what looked like a helmet-to-helmet collision. Both Kapanen and Vanecek initially stayed in the game, but Vanecek was pulled shortly after, presumably by a concussion spotter, in favor of Ilya Samsonov.

The 26-year-old Czech netminder has split time with Samsonov this season, posting a 10-6-5 record and .916 save percentage to go along with two shutouts. Tonight was his 23rd start of the season. He’s been the better of the two goalies, however, and it will be a huge blow to the Capitals if he misses time.

If Vanecek does miss time, the team will likely call up Zachary Fucale from Hershey. In his first four NHL games this season, he has a .924 save percentage.

Roman Josi, Evgeny Kuznetsov Headed To All-Star Game

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The NHL announced today that in light of injuries to the Central Division’s Nathan MacKinnon and the Metropolitan Division’s Adam Fox, Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi and Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov will serve as their replacements at the 2022 All-Star Game in Las Vegas next weekend. Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski will replace MacKinnon as Central Division captain.

Josi heads to the game as Nashville’s second representative, joining goaltender Juuse Saros. The 2020 Norris Trophy winner has a spectacular 43 points in 43 games this season, enjoying what’s on pace to be the best offensive campaign of his 11-year-career. He’ll be the team’s second defenseman alongside Colorado’s Cale Makar.

Kuznetsov is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance campaign, seeing increased production back alongside Alex Ovechkin. His 43 points in 42 games put him on his first point-per-game pace since the 2017-18 season in which Washington won the Stanley Cup. He’s seeing heavy usage this year, playing over 21:25 per game under head coach Peter Laviolette.

 

Capitals Looking Into Marc-Andre Fleury

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While the Capitals are quite comfortably in a playoff spot (13 points ahead of Detroit for the final Wild Card slot), they’re also within striking distance of first in the Metropolitan as they were five points out of first heading into tonight’s games.  They’ve managed to accomplish this on the backs of Alex Ovechkin and one of the strongest offensive groups in the league even with goaltending that has been near the middle of the pack.

Accordingly, it appears they’re at least exploring a potential upgrade between the pipes as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports in his latest 32 Thoughts column that they are looking into the possibility of acquiring Blackhawks goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Washington is currently platooning youngsters Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov with Zach Fucale getting into a handful of games this season and they’ve played to a 2.56 GAA with a .908 SV%.  Those numbers are actually similar to what Fleury has put up this season (2.76 GAA, .913 SV%) although Chicago has had some struggles on the back end that have to be taken into consideration.

It was only last season that the 37-year-old won the Vezina Trophy, recording a 1.98 GAA with a .928 SV% with Vegas who decided to move Fleury to Chicago over the summer to free up some salary cap space with his $7MM AAV coming off the books.  The Blackhawks gave up very little in return, the rights to Mikael Hakkarainen, who was released three weeks later.

Accordingly, in the right environment with a chance of a long playoff run, Fleury could represent a notable upgrade and it’s understandable that Washington is at least looking into this possibility.  He’d certainly give them a boost for the stretch run while allowing Chicago to bring back a lot more than what they gave up to get him.

That said, making the money work will be a challenge.  Washington has just over $2MM in cap space, per CapFriendly, and that’s due to Anthony Mantha being on LTIR.  If he’s unable to return before the end of the regular season, that could, in theory, be applied towards Fleury’s price tag but if the winger can return, that will basically make the Caps capped out in order to get back into cap compliance.

Chicago can retain up to 50% and if the Capitals are willing, a third team could get involved and retain 50% of the remainder (25% of the full deal) to help mitigate the cap impact although some further work would need to be done to get compliant.  It seems unlikely that GM Brian MacLellan would want to part with either Vanecek or Samsonov to accommodate a few months of Fleury and if that’s the case, they’ll have to find a way to afford to carry three goalies the rest of the way.

Fleury has a 10-team no-trade list in his contract and it’s unknown if Washington is on there.  Even if it is, it’s quite likely that Chicago would give the veteran a chance to approve or nix a deal to the Capitals or anywhere else after they worked with him to get him to agree to join the Blackhawks in the first place.

Regardless of whether or not this works out, it appears Washington is trying to think big in terms of shoring up their goaltending situation which will make them a team to watch for in the weeks leading up to the March 21st trade deadline.

Dmitry Orlov Suspended Two Games

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The Department of Player Safety has handed out a two-game suspension to Washington Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov for his knee-on-knee hit on Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers last night. As the accompanying video explains:

It is important to note that while Ehlers is attempting to move around Orlov on this place, this is not a case where an exceptionally sharp or sudden movement by a player receiving a hit turns a potential full body check into a leg-on-leg contact. The two players are moving slowly enough that Orlov has time to recognize that Ehlers is changing position, and he responds to this by thrusting his arms and knee out wider to attempt to get a piece of Ehlers.

While this is a common response from defensemen, on this play the only contact Orlov is able to make is direct, forceful, knee-to-knee contact. If Orlov wants to initiate contact on this play, he must ensure that he is able to make more substantial upper-body contact, rather than having the force of the blow concentrated on his opponent’s knee. 

The fact that Ehlers suffered an injury on the play was taken into consideration. Jets head coach Dave Lowry already ruled the forward out for the rest of the team’s road trip and explained that he is undergoing further evaluation to determine the extent of the injury. Orlov was also not penalized by on-ice officials.

Though he does have a suspension on record, the league decided that Orlov does not have any relevant disciplinary history in this case as his previous ban was for boarding in 2014. Now, he’ll have a second suspension on the books, one that will be taken into account when determining punishment for any similar incidents. Orlov will miss games against the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators in the coming days.

Dmitry Orlov To Have Hearing With Department Of Player Safety

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The Washington Capitals could be down a key defenseman in their next game, as the Department of Player Safety has announced a hearing for Dmitry Orlov. The potential supplementary discipline stems from a hit late in the third period of last night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.

With Nikolaj Ehlers circling in the Capitals zone, Orlov delivered a knee-on-knee hit to take the Jets forward off the puck. Ehlers immediately crumpled to the ice holding his knee, needed to be helped off by a member of the training staff, and has already been ruled out for Winnipeg’s next game. Head coach Dave Lowry explained to reporters after the game including Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet that he expects Ehlers to miss more than just one game but is still being evaluated.

There was no penalty called on the play, but the DoPS appears to be making sure Orlov receives some sort of punishment. A suspension is the likely outcome of any hearing, though not guaranteed. The 30-year-old defenseman has been suspended in the past for boarding, an incident that will be taken into account in the league’s decision.

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