Breaking down the Joe Snively call up

The Washington Capitals are tweaking their lineup a bit for tonight’s road game against the Philadelphia Flyers as they recalled forward Joe Snively from the Hershey Bears while placing Sonny Milano on injured reserve.

Milano has skated mostly on the bottom six and through 23 games this season has eight points with four goals and four assists. He skated in the Caps win Sunday night over the Chicago Blackhawks and practiced earlier this week. He had a goal in the Caps win Saturday night over the New York Rangers.

Snively is now 27 and has recorded 21 points in 25 games with Hershey this season with seven goals and 14 assists. He ranks second on Hershey in assists, third in points, and tied for third in goals.

The five foot nine, 180 pound forward in 12 games with the Capitals the last two seasons. Last season he recorded four points with two goals and two assists while recording 27 points in 32 regular season games with Hershey with nine goals and 18 assists.

Snively is a native of Herndon, Virginia and has known Alex Ovechkin since he was a teenager. They both see the same dentist and one lucky appointment saw Snively run into the great eight and get his hockey gloves signed by the legend.

He became the first Virginia born player to play for the Caps in the 2021-22 season. He appeared in 12 games and recorded seven points with four goals and three assists. That included a three point effort on Feb. 10, 2022 against the Montreal Canadiens where he had two goals and one assist.

Snively became one of 15 rookies in franchise history to record at least seven points in his first 10 games. So far in the AHL with Hershey, Snively has skated in 176 career games with recorded 134 points with 51 goals and 83 assists.

During his youth hockey playing days he trained at MedStar Capitals Iceplex and participated in the Little Caps program. He also skated frequently in the Reston rink.