Fehr practices with Caps before Winter Classic. (photo by Cheryl Nichols)
The Washington Capitals reportedly have an agreement with winger Eric Fehr to return to the club. According to those reports, Fehr signed a one-year deal worth $600,000, though the team has not announced the decision as of late Saturday night due to the signing of the Memo of Understanding that officially ended the lockout Saturday afternoon.
Fehr, 27, recorded 13 goals and 25 points in 21 games with HPK Hameenlinna in Finland’s SM-Liiga during the lockout. Fehr missed the first 20 games of the 2011-12 season as he recovered from yet another shoulder surgery and recorded just two goals and one assists in 35 games with the Jets last season.
Fehr, if healthy, could provide some scoring depth from the third or fourth line for the Caps, especially in a short season where injuries could provide challenges to the Caps depth. They don’t really have an abundance of NHL-caliber talent in Hershey this season, as evidenced by only two Bears, goalie Braden Holtby and defenseman Dmitri Orlov, being brought to D.C. for training camp.
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Washington invited forward Tom Wilson, one of the team’s two first-round choices in the 2012 NHL Draft, to training camp this week. Currently playing for Plymouth in the OHL, the 18-year-old Wilson was left off the roster of the Canadian entry for the 2013 World Junior Championship, despite his string showing this season for Plymouth. He has 12 goals and 34 points (plus-16) with 59 penalty minutes in just 30 games.
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The NHL released the schedules Saturday, and you can find the Caps’ here. The Caps play 48 games in 99 days. Yup, that’s a lot of hockey packed into not a lot of time.
Vogs has a great piece breaking down the whole schedule, but they’ll play five games against two Southeast Division ”rivals” (Winnipeg and Carolina) and four games against its other two (Florida and Tampa Bay). The Caps will visit Winnipeg three times (including games on back-to-back nights March 21-22) and will host Carolina three times. They’ll also play each other team in the conference three times.
The Capitals play two road games and one home game against Montreal, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers. The Capitals host two home games and play one road game against New Jersey, Toronto, Boston, Buffalo and the New York Islanders.
Highlights:
- Caps host Pittsburgh on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3
- Eight sets of games on back-to-back nights
- Consecutive home games against New Jersey, Feb. 21-23
- Nine of 12 on the road from March 19 – Apr. 9
- Five of last seven games at home, including last three
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According to this tweet by TSN.com’s Bob MacKenzie, Brooks Laich is “likely to miss 1st week or two” with an undisclosed injury. Laich has been skating by himself before the Caps unofficial practices this week at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.
Laich played in Switzerland during the lockout and Thursday wouldn’t talk about if he suffered any injury while playing there.
“I feel healthy…I feel good,” Laich said.
He skated for approximately an hour Thursday, most of it with no power since the power went out at Kettler before the informal practice started. He left the ice once the informal practice started.
“Just getting in a little extra work,” Laich added. “Just making sure that everything’s good to go. Nothing major.”