Some surprises in today’s Capitals roster cuts

The end of the preseason is near and that means more cuts to the roster. The Washington Capitals, along with every other NHL team, has to trim their roster to 23 players for opening night. The Caps have trimmed their roster to 27 players. The updated roster is here.

Let’s go over the cuts and where they headed:

Assigned to the Hershey Bears: Ethen Frank (F), Hendrix Lapierre (F), Riley Sutter (F), Vincent Iorio (D), Chase Priskie (D)

Placed on waivers for purposes of loan to Hershey: Nicolas Aube Kubel (F), Alex Limoges (F), Michael Sgarbossa (F), Joe Snively (F), Dylan McIlrath (D), Hunter Shepard (G)

A couple of surprises on here. Riley Sutter is a big one after being cut and uncut in the same week. Now he’s cut again. Hendrix Lapierre is another one but I think he’s a year away. Vincent Iorio is eliminated from the sixth defenseman sweepstakes but he can always get called up if someone else goes down.

Now the sixth defenseman will come down to Hardy Haman Aktell, Alex Alexeyev, and Lucas Johansen.

The biggest surprise of who goes on waivers is Nicolas Aube Kubel who the Caps plucked from the waiver wire last year. Joe Snively is another surprise. But these cuts also give Matthew Phillips a huge opportunity to dominate in the preseason finale and cement a spot on the 23 man roster.

Ivan Miroshnichenko is also still on the roster. He’s impressed Spencer Carbery and it wouldn’t come as a total surprise to see him make his NHL debut on Friday the 13th against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But no matter who is still on the roster, there’s 27 right now and the bottom line is after tomorrow night it’ll have to go down 23. That means four players will be kicked out of varsity and headed to the Hershey Bears.