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The Washington Capitals are close to setting their Opening Night 23-man roster for the 2025-26 NHL season after making six cuts on Friday morning.

The Capitals must cut four more players from camp before submitting their final roster by 5 pm on October 6.

All indications, including Friday’s lines and pairings at practice, suggest that a group of seven players on the bubble is fighting to remain on the team.

Players on the bubble (Keep 3)

Forwards

• Hendrix Lapierre
• Sonny Milano
• Ivan Miroshnichenko
• Ethen Frank

Defensemen

• Dylan McIlrath
• Vincent Iorio

Goaltender

• Clay Stevenson

The battle at forward

The most competitive battle for roster spots is at forward, where Hendrix Lapierre appears a surefire candidate to make the final roster. Not only that, but Lapierre may have locked up another shot at third-line center heading into the year.

Fighting for spots underneath Lapierre is a group of wingers consisting of Ivan Miroshnichenko, Sonny Milano, and Ethen Frank. Of the three, Miroshnichenko is the only one who is still waivers-exempt, meaning he can be directly sent to the Bears without risk of another team in the NHL claiming him.

If the Capitals were to maintain the same roster composition from last year — 13 forwards, eight defensemen, and two goaltenders — the club would carry Lapierre and one of the latter players. All three have prior NHL experience, with Milano leading the way with 313 career games, followed by Miroshnichenko (39) and Frank (24).

Milano, 29, has been red hot during the preseason, recording six points (4g, 2a) in three games. He trails only Lapierre (7 points) in overall scoring and is the league leader in goals with four. The veteran winger played in just three games for the Capitals last season due to early health scratches and a November upper-body injury that sidelined him for the rest of the year. He is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

Frank, 27, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of Milano’s injury woes, getting into his first 24 NHL games after being recalled from Hershey in January. The two-time AHL’s fastest skater was part of the back-to-back Calder Cup-winning Bears teams in 2023 and 2024, and has recorded seven career points (4g, 3a) with the Capitals.

Miroshnichenko, 21, finally found some consistency in his young North American pro career last year, notching 42 points (23g, 19a) in 53 games for the Bears. He finished the season as Hershey’s leading goal scorer and has two points (1g, 1a) in four preseason games this fall.

All three wingers were not assigned a line at Friday’s practice, filtering in and out of rushes as extra skaters. While the final preseason game is usually treated as a dress rehearsal for the first game of the regular season, head coach Spencer Carbery did not commit to playing his projected final lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.

Vincent Iorio vs. Dylan McIlrath

The fight for spots on defense is a little more straightforward. There are three defenders not included in the team’s top six: Declan Chisholm, Dylan McIlrath, and Vincent Iorio, who are still with the club in camp. Chisholm and McIlrath took reps as the fourth pairing at Friday’s practice, while Iorio subbed in and out as the only extra rearguard.

Unlike with the forwards, none of the fringe blueliners are waivers-exempt, meaning the Capitals would have to risk losing whoever they eventually try to demote to the AHL. Chisholm, whom the Caps acquired from the Minnesota Wild over the summer, has likely already sealed his spot as the club’s seventh defenseman.

Chisholm, 25, is the only left-handed shot among the three, leaving the two righties, McIlrath, 33, and Iorio, 22, to battle for the eighth spot allocated to defensemen. McIlrath appeared in 17 games for the Capitals last season and is a locker-room favorite, while Iorio spent the entire season, except for a brief November recall, with the Bears.

Iorio, due to his age and possible still-to-be-unlocked potential, is probably more likely to be plucked off waivers than McIlrath. However, the Capitals seemed to have permanently graduated the elder defender to the NHL last year, with the Bears making Aaron Ness their new captain.

The intense forward competition could also throw a further wrench into their plans. If the Capitals deem they need to keep 14 forwards to start the year, both Iorio and McIlrath could be risked on waivers.

What to do with Clay?

The only question in goal surrounds Clay Stevenson and concerns what the Capitals have planned for him in the coming days. Multiple NHL insiders, including Kevin Weekes and Elliotte Friedman, believe other teams in the league are circling Stevenson if and when he hits the waiver wire.

Stevenson, set to be Hershey’s number-one netminder and the Capitals’ third goalie, made his NHL debut in the Caps’ final 2024-25 regular-season game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, impressing head coach Spencer Carbery despite taking a 5-2 loss. During the regular season for the Bears, Stevenson had an 18-8-4 record along with a 2.94 goals-against average, an .888 save percentage, and two shutouts in 33 appearances.

The Capitals have several options to consider, but none is better than the others. They could keep three goalies on their roster to start the year, but that would take away a roster spot from the extra forwards and defenders, potentially risking an extra talented skater to waivers. Plus, doing so would merely delay the inevitable, as it’s unlikely they’d want to keep three backstops the whole season.

General manager Chris Patrick could try to trade Stevenson, but that would also leave the team with Garin Bjorklund, who has only two games of AHL experience, as the team’s starter in Hershey. Any trade return would also likely be affected by the Capitals’ limited leverage in the situation.

The third option is just to hope that Stevenson’s one-way contract will be enough to stave off a claim from any of the NHL’s other teams. This is the first year he is required to be exposed to waivers, which means they have no real gauge on the true level of risk.

Finally, the Capitals could deal one of their NHL incumbents, Logan Thompson or Charlie Lindgren, to free up a spot for Stevenson. That idea seems the most unlikely as both goalies in Washington were signed to contract extensions last season, and Lindgren, the team’s backup, is signed to an affordable deal.