The Washington Capitals put Jakub Vrana on waivers ahead of their game on Wednesday night against the New York Rangers from Madison Square Garden. Teams have 24 hours to claim a player and if he goes unclaimed they head to the AHL. But this time Vrana got plucked from none other than the Nashville Predators.
Jakub Vrana's good and bad time in D.C.
This season, Vrana appeared in just 26 games and had seven goals and four assists for 11 points. He also had a plus/minus of plus six while averaging 9:50 minutes of ice time. The Capitals winger was signed prior to the season on a professional tryout agreement or PTO for short and made the team out of training camp. He was originally drafted by the Capitals in the first round at 13th overall in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
Nashville claims Vrana
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 6, 2025
In the 2017-18 Cup season he scored 13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points and in the spring had three goals and five assists for eight points in the run to the Stanley Cup. It was an improvement from the year before which still saw him score six points in 21 games with three goals and three assists.
Vrana was even better following that Cup win with a 47 point season in 2018-19 with 24 goals and 23 assists. He added 25 goals and 27 assists for 52 points the next year before the regular season was cut short due to a pandemic.
During the pandemic shortened 2021 season he had 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 points before he got traded to the Detroit Red Wings for Anthony Mantha. Vrana would see time with the Red Wings and St. Louis Blues before making his way back to Washington.
With the Caps he had 83 goals and 85 assists for 168 points in the regular season while his numbers are 117 goals and 103 assists for 220 points across nine NHL seasons. Like the 2021 COVID shortened season, Vrana wasn't seeing much playing time this season so a trade or a waiver move was always possible move with the trade deadline looming at 3 p.m. on Friday.