Coming into the 2024-25 NHL season, it appeared that solely three members of the Washington Capitals‘ 2018 Stanley Cup-winning staff can be on the energetic roster: returners Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson and Tom Wilson.
… Because it seems, there shall be a fourth.
After a powerful preseason displaying, Jakub Vrana earned the ultimate roster spot on the Capitals and can signal a full-time contract with the staff after initially becoming a member of Washington final summer season on a skilled tryout settlement, per PuckPedia.
It is a full-circle second for Vrana, who was drafted by the Capitals in 2014 and spent his first a number of NHL seasons in D.C. He rapidly turned a fan favourite as a consequence of his youthful character, lightning-quick velocity and untapped potential, and was as soon as seen because the successor to Ovechkin because the staff’s star goal-scorer of the longer term.
Vrana broke out throughout the 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs and notably discovered the again of the web within the Caps’ Cup-clinching Sport 5 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. He scored 49 targets and 99 factors over the course of the subsequent two seasons as a full-time member of Washington’s high six, often taking part in on the second line.
Nonetheless, Vrana fell out of favor with the Capitals throughout Peter Laviolette’s tenure as head coach and was traded to the Detroit Purple Wings within the spring of 2021 for Anthony Mantha. Regardless of hopes {that a} new residence may take his sport to larger heights, Vrana’s subsequent few seasons had been tormented by accidents and a stint with the NHL’s participant help program.
It appeared that Vrana’s NHL profession is likely to be over after he earned solely six factors in 21 video games with the St. Louis Blues within the 2023-24 season, spending nearly all of the marketing campaign within the minor leagues. The Caps introduced him again on a flyer, and it seems the return to the group and metropolis that developed him has reignited his efficiency. He was one of many staff’s most seen gamers throughout the preseason.
How Vrana fares and what his function shall be all through the common season are unsure, however the truth that he made the opening night time roster is a victory. There’s at all times a sentimental worth connected to any participant who contributes to a championship staff, and for one like Vrana whose earlier tenure ended on less-than-ideal phrases, it offers heartwarming closure for himself, the group and Caps followers in every single place.
