Yesterday, the Washington Capitals officially kicked off their 2025 training camp. With players from across the organization in Arlington, hockey season is officially underway. While the Bears, led by new Head Coach Derek King, won’t officially kick off their season for another couple of weeks, there are a couple key position battles for Bears fans to watch that will affect the Bears roster to kick off the 2025-26 season.

The Training Camp Roster

Above is the official training camp roster and Bears fans will see a couple familiar faces who are almost certain to be back in Hershey this year. This includes players like team captain Aaron Ness, Spencer Smallman, Zac Funk, Ryan Hofer and Clay Stevenson, plus a few others.

The Non-Battles

In terms of position battles, the Capitals are solidified in net and are very likely solidified in terms of the defensemen they keep down in DC as well. Logan Thompson and Charlie Lindgren are rock solid in their spots as the Capitals number one and two goalies respectively, with Clay Stevenson likely taking the place as the Capitals preferred “third goalie”, where he’d be the first call up choice by Washington if one of Thompson or Lindgren couldn’t suit up.

The defense corps are also pretty set. The Capitals retained the same group they had starting consistently last year, and solidified it even more when they signed former Bear Martin Fehervary to a 7-year, $6 million AAV extension that begins next season. With Jacob Chychrun also staying around with the start of the 8-year, $9 million AAV extension he signed mid-season last year, the core group is set. Former Bears captain Dylan McIlrath also is expected to stay up in DC after providing solid minutes when necessary due to injuries and his positive locker room presence. The only change that’s been made is in the backup LHD spot, where the Caps moved on from Alex Alexeyev and acquired and immediately extended Declan Chisholm to the tune of a 2-year, $1.6 million contract with the team.

The only potential wrinkle to watch out for is the status of Vincent Iorio. The 22-year old defenseman, who is currently set to be the second longest tenured Bear on the defense, only after Aaron Ness, is no longer waiver exempt. It seems unlikely that he would be claimed, but if Iorio has a good preseason, other teams could be interested and the Caps may not want to risk losing the talented former second round pick. Like I said, this is an unlikely scenario as it stands, but it could be something to keep an eye on.

The Battles at Forward

The key battles at Capitals training camp that Bears fans should pay attention to, and the ones that will have the most effect on the team to start off the season, will be for the third line left-wing spot and the thirteenth forward on the team.

You can make the argument that there are, at the bare minimum, five players competing for these two spots, with two potential “wild card” players if they perform well during the preseason games.

The five players that on paper are competing for these spots are:

• 23-year old Hendrix Lapierre, who had 8 points in 27 games for the Capitals and 32 points in 32 games for the Bears last season.
• 29-year old Sonny Milano, who had 0 points in 3 games for the Capitals last season and missed the majority of the year due to injury.
• 27-year old Ethen Frank, who put up 28 points in 35 games for Hershey (20 being goals) and then put up 7 points in 24 games with the Capitals last year after getting called up.
• 21-year old Ivan Miroshnichenko, who tallied 42 points in 53 games for the Bears and had 4 points in 18 games with Washington last season.
• 20-year old Andrew Cristall, who put up a staggering 132 points in 57 games he split between Kelowna and Spokane of the WHL last year.

Again, on paper, these are the five talented players competing for two spots. That means three of them could end up in Hershey.

Importantly, if Miroshnichenko and/or Cristall don’t get that third line left wing spot, since both are waivers exempt, the Capitals almost certainly will not keep them on the bench as the 13th forward. If they don’t play themselves into the starting lineup in Washington, they will be in Hershey to start this season.

When it comes to Lapierre, Milano and Frank, all three are not waivers exempt, meaning a team could claim each of these players if the Capitals were to place them on waivers. That is something that could play into the Capitals decision making here.

However, Head Coach Spencer Carbery seems to have placed the burden of “early favorite” for that third line left wing spot on the back of Miroshnichenko, who was placed yesterday on a line with Connor McMichael and Tom Wilson, two players who were critical to last season’s success in Washington. Getting put with those two on the first day of camp seems to signify that, as it stands, the Capitals coaching staff prefers Miroshnichenko in that spot.

That could change quickly depending on his performances in camp and in preseason games, as Cristall nearly stunned everyone by almost making the Capitals out of camp last year after a strong performance, while players like Milano, Lapierre and even Frank all have prior success that, with a strong performance this preseason, could vault any one of them into that role themselves.

I did find it interesting that Carbery placed Milano, Lapierre and Frank together on a line to start the first day of camp, which could signal that the Caps Head Coach wants them to all push each other as they compete for these open spots.

There’s also the two wild cards I mentioned earlier. Henrik Rybinski and Bogdan Trineyev both had breakout seasons for the Bears last year in upgraded roles and reportedly that caught the eye of the Capitals organization last year. Rybinski excelled at the center spot last year, slotting into the Bears middle-six excellently, while Trineyev drew lots of eyes with his physical play and hard shot. Trineyev in particular dominated in the Bears shortened playoff run last year, putting up 7 points in the 8 playoff games Hershey had last year, with 5 of those points being goals and that point total led the Bears for their playoff run.

However, with the five players in front of them, plus with Taylor Raddysh’s spot being filled by trade acquisition Justin Sourdif, it would take a brilliant camp from either Rybinski or Trineyev to get one of the open spots. That’s not impossible though and both could continue their momentum from last year and turn it into a spot in the NHL.

This will be the main battle to watch as training camp and the preseason continues in Washington. And, with the Capitals coming to town for preseason hockey in only six days, Bears nation will get an up close look at those battles themself. With the first day of NHL camp gone, that means hockey is almost here and I can’t wait to be with you all right here at The Chocolate Roar for season two.