Just a little clarification to a post I had Sunday on the Capitals’ roster situation heading into the holiday roster freeze. There are 22 players on the active roster, including defenseman Mike Green, who is still fighting the right groin injury and saw a specialist last week. He skated at practice on Monday for about 30 minutes on his own, watched from the bench when his teammates began drills a little after 10:30 a.m. and left shortly thereafter. Safe to assume he isn’t close to returning without at least a full week of real practices with contact. He could go on long-term injured reserve retroactively at any time, if the team so chooses, and be immediately eligible to return.
Matt Hendricks says he’s fully recovered from the right knee injury that cost him some games last week. That made Cody Eakin expendable so the rookie forward was returned to AHL Hershey on Sunday. And Jay Beagle (concussion) has taken some positive steps forward. But even with clearance to practice granted Monday he won’t be back before the Dec. 19 to Dec. 27 roster freeze. Beagle remains on injured reserve. Defenseman Tom Poti, of course, has been on long-term injured reserve all season and no reason to believe that will change any time soon.
Recommended Stories
Using that term roster “freeze” loosely because while a team can’t make trades or – in most, but not all, cases – return a player to the AHL, they are still allowed to recall their own players from the minors, including both any veterans who need to clear re-entry waivers and players still on their entry-level contracts like Eakin. So while down a forward, the Caps aren’t that concerned.
“Well, Hershey’s not that far. I was there last week,” Washington coach Dale Hunter said. “It is convenient for us coaches to have the farm team so close. At 3:00 tomorrow afternoon we could call him up so he could be here on time.”
In the six games played since Dec. 3, Eakin had topped 10 minutes of ice time just once. He had just one point – a goal – in Washington’s last 10 games. Eakin was a minus-3 in those contests with nine shots on goal. And on Saturday he was a healthy scratch against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver.
Since his promotion on Nov. 1, Eakin was a scratch just three times – Nov. 5 against the Islanders, Nov. 26 against Buffalo and Saturday. He appeared in 19 of 22 games. But he’d been put on the fourth line starting with the Dec. 7 game at Ottawa and stayed there with Mathieu Perreault and Mike Knuble for the next four contests. Didn’t make sense to continue with that role in the NHL so the Caps reassigned Eakin to AHL affiliate Hershey on Sunday morning. He played for the Bears at home against Norfolk on Sunday night at left wing.
The report card? Three goals and three assists total. Eakin was on the ice for 2.71 goals against per 60 minutes of ice time. Among the 13 Washington forwards with at least 19 games played, Eakin ranked seventh. Not too bad. And he was actually on the ice a team-best 3.38 goals/60. Then again – only Perreault saw weaker competition than Eakin (-0.139). But 9:19 of even-strength ice time per game just isn’t enough for a 20-year-old.
“The more games [Eakin] gets at this level and at the other level, it’ll help his game,” Washington coach Dale Hunter said. “He’s going to be a good NHL player. He’s a young guy. Again, the more ice time he gets it’s just going to speed it up.”
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
