Washington Capitals: 2019 expectations for Mike Sgarbossa
The Washington Capitals re-signed Mike Sgarbossa this weekend, an AHL standout with even some NHL experience to his resume.
But Mike Sgarbossa’s road to the Washington Capitals organization was a winding one. He first signed a contract after going undrafted with the San Jose Sharks in 2010, and made stops in the organizations of the Anaheim Ducks, Florida Panthers and Winnipeg Jets.
One summer ago, the Capitals signed him to a one-year, two way deal. On Saturday morning, less than 24-hours after trading Andre Burakovsky, the team announced they are bringing back Sgarbossa for two more years. This new two-way deal carries an average annual value (AAV) of $700,000 in the NHL and $407,500 in the AHL.
Sgarbossa centered a strong top line for the Bears with Riley Barber to his right and either Shane Gersich or Liam O’Brien on the left side.
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Disclosed in the press release sent by the Capitals on the re-signing indicated that he led the Bears with 65 points, tied for ninth in the AHl. He additionally scored an NHL career-high 30 goals and 35 assists.
Sgarbossa also added a goal and two assists in Hershey’s five-game series win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers but was absent for the entire second round against the Charlotte Checkers due to injury. The Bears were swept in four games. Garrett Pilon filled in for Sgarbossa on the top line in that series
One thing to expect from Sgarbossa is the speed and a force on the Bears power play and a force to be reckoned with on the top line once again in 2019-20. At six-foot tall and 185 pounds, the 26-year old veteran led the Bears with 14 goals on the man-advantage last season.
With the Capitals center depth pretty much set with Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Lars Eller and Nic Dowd to be back, expect Sgarbossa to be back in Hershey unless he has a strong training camp and preseason and the Capitals want to add him as an extra on the opening night roster. Though I don’t think the latter part would be likely.
The one way Sgarbossa could make it to Washington will factor into the health of the upcoming 2019-20 team. It’ll be a long season and sometimes injuries happens. It is likely if any of those centers get hurt, the Capitals will likely be calling Hershey to bring Sgarbossa aboard.
Next. Who the Capitals could target at right wing. dark
If that’s the case, the Capitals would have a decent center in the bottom-six that has 48 games of NHL experience under his belt. Sgarbossa has two goals and eight assists. Both of those times Sgarbossa lit the lamp came when he played in 29 games with the Florida Panthers in the 2016-17 season.