The Washington Capitals are ready to go as Barry Trotz, GM Brian McLellan and company have finalized the 23-man roster for the 2014-15 season that begins tomorrow night against Montreal.
The roster is as follows per the team website:
GOALTENDERS: Braden Holtby, Justin Peters.
DEFENSEMEN: Karl Alzner, John Carlson, John Erskine, Mike Green, Jack Hillen, Matt Niskanen, Brooks Orpik, Nate Schmidt.
FORWARDS: Nicklas Backstrom, Troy Brouwer, Chris Brown, Andre Burakovsky, Jason Chimera, Eric Fehr, Marcus Johansson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Brooks Laich, Michael Latta, Liam O’Brien, Alex Ovechkin, Joel Ward.
INJURED RESERVE: Jay Beagle, Tom Wilson.
LONG-TERM INJURED RESERVE: Dmitry Orlov, Aaron Volpatti.
It's nice to that Nate Schmidt will be filling in in that last spot on defense, taking over for Orlov who is still mending a broken wrist. The defense is quite log jammed however, and when Orlov does return, and Schmidt is playing well, it could make things interesting in the rumor mill. Liam O'Brien, the freshly signed rookie that walked on and made the team this preseason, is taking a seat next to Evgeny Kuznetsov and Michael Latta on the fourth line. Chris Brown and O'Brien should take turns this season until Tom Wilson is ready to come back in about a month. Wilson will probably spend some time in Hershey before he ready to join the Caps full time, and O'Brien will most likely be sent down to Hershey at that point - unless he proves otherwise.
The big news is rookie Andre Burakovsky making the team. The 19 year old had a dynamite preseason, and he's been "adopted" of sorts by teammate Nicklas Backstrom, who also broke into the league at 19 in 2007.
"I have a beautiful baby girl," said Backstrom to owner Ted Leonsis, "and now I have a beautiful baby boy." (CSN Washington)
The tutelage should be a good one for the rookie, as he is learning to play center this season, and playing right behind the top-line should be an eye opener for Burakovsky.
"He's a center and I'm going to try to be a center this year so I'm always trying to look and learn from Nicky. He's helped me a lot- him and Marcus [Johansson]. It's been really important to have them around." (WashingtonCapitals.com)
The puck drops tomorrow night at 7pm in DC.
More to come...
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