Top 3 reactions to Capitals opening night roster for 2023

By now we know who made and didn’t make the Washington Capitals. We are getting a clearer picture of what the lineup could look like each day of practice. At morning skate it’ll be crystal clear.

Here’s what the lines looked like the last few days at practice:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie

McMichael-Kuznetsov-Wilson

Milano-Strome-Protas

Malenstyn-Dowd-Mantha/Phillips

Sandin-Carlson

Johansen-Jensen

Fehervary-TvR

Alexeyev

Kuemper

Lindgren

Now let’s break down the top 3 reactions I had to the roster:

#3 Hardy Haman Aktell didn’t make the team

A dark horse that could’ve made the sixth defenseman spot was Hardy Haman Aktell. In the end, he got sent to Hershey. In the process, Alex Alexeyev and Lucas Johansen both made the team.

Haman Aktell had a good showing at training camp and the preseason and this shocked Caps fans in a way. The reasoning behind Haman Aktell beginning the season with the Bears is the salary cap.

The Caps placed Max Pacioretty on LTIR and Joel Edmundson on IR but Haman Aktell’s cap hit would’ve put the team over the salary cap. Edmundson would not go on LTIR because he will not be missing at least 10 games following his surgery. So that’s what put the Caps in salary cap hell to the point they had to send one of their studs down to the minors.

#2 Caps have something they haven’t had since the Cup run

The Caps roster will feature eight players that are 25 years of age or younger. This is something the Caps haven’t had in their lineup since 2017 18.

Among the roster this year in that age 25 or under threshold are Alex Alexeyev who’s 23, Martin Fehervary who’s 24, Lucas Johansen who’s 25, Beck Malenstyn who’s 25, Connor McMichael who’s 22, Matthew Phillips who’s 25, Aliaksei Protas who’s 22, and Rasmus Sandin who’s 23.

The Caps folks on that Cup squad who were 25 years of age or younger include Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Jakub Vrana, Brett Connolly, Devante Smith Pelly, Christian Djoos, Nathan Walker, and Philipp Grubauer.

Those people I just mentioned were just as big as contributing to the Cup as Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom were. Evgeny Kuznetsov was the one who scored the historic goal to end the Caps second round jinx. That came in overtime in a thrilling series win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Devante Smith Pelly scored big goals in the playoffs including three straight finals games capping it off with the game tying goal in the Cup clincher in Game 5.

Jakub Vrana had some big moments of his own. A game winner in Game 5 of the second round to put the Pens on the brink as well as the first goal in that Stanley Cup Game 5.

Because of those eight players making the team, the Caps are now tied for the sixth oldest roster in the NHL with an average age of 28.8. That’s a whole lot better than being the oldest or second oldest.