The Capitals have reassigned forward D.J. King to American Hockey League affiliate Hershey. The team and King’s agent, David Kaye, had agreed late last month that the player would be placed on waivers to gauge potential interest from the other 29 NHL teams. King went on waivers on Oct. 31 and 24 hours later – after not being claimed by anyone – he returned to the Caps.
King, 27, played in just 16 of 82 games last season with Washington. This year he has appeared in just one contest out of 12, playing 6 minutes, 58 seconds in a game Oct. 15 against the Ottawa Senators. That’s a difficult situation for any player. Unable to show his value sitting in a team suite night after night, maybe King can do so playing with the Bears.
“That’s pretty much what it was. Just to see if someone else needed my role…where I’d have a little more opportunity to play,” King said last week. “But it’s a tough market so right now I’m back to where I was at the start of the year like nothing changed. And just work hard and when I get the chance here to play just make sure I’m ready to play good.”
The Caps were headed for a roster crunch. But with King in the minors they now have 21 healthy players. Defenseman Mike Green – who remains on the active roster – is inching closer to a return from a right ankle injury. He did not play in games this weekend against the Carolina Hurricanes or New York Islanders. But he did make the trip and participated in the morning skate on Friday in Raleigh. Also, forward Jay Beagle (concussion) is set to begin practicing this week as long as all went well with his neurological tests over the weekend. Beagle skated on Friday at Kettler Iceplex. His return is likely still at least a week away. Beagle last played Oct. 13 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
King has appeared in 118 NHL games combined between the Caps and St. Louis Blues, who chose him in the sixth round of the 2002 NHL Draft (191st overall) He has four goals and 11 assists, but as an enforcer has also racked up 215 penalty minutes. The problem? McPhee has never seen the absolute need for a fighter on his roster, especially if he doesn’t believe that player can contribute consistently on the fourth line. King, a 6-foot-3, 231-pound winger, has 189 career games in the AHL (Worcester, Peoria) with 16 goals, 19 assists and 453 penalty minutes. He was acquired by Washington on July 28, 2010 in a trade with St. Louis for prospect Stefan Della Rovere, now 21.
Hasn’t hurt them so far. Della Rovere, a 5-11, 200-pound agitator, had eight goals and eight assists in 66 games last season with Peoria and has two goals and two assists so far this season. Della Rovere had 110 penalty minutes in 2010-11 and is at 37 penalty minutes through eight games early this year. Della Rovere was Washington’s seventh-round pick in the 2008 draft.
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