The Washington Capitals have reclaimed Nathan Walker off waivers from the Edmonton Oilers and will report to the NHL squad for now, since the roster freeze is in effect.
Walker was acquired by the Oilers for a short period after being waived by the Capitals earlier this season due to a roster crunch, but was never unwanted by his previous organization. The fact that he is now back with them is no surprise.
Interestingly though, Walker’s addition puts the Capitals right up against the salary cap for the moment according to CapFriendly. The team won’t get to bank cap space for the next week the way it has this season unless they assign Madison Bowey or Jakub Vrana to the minors. Both players were sent down for just a single day earlier this week, meaning (since it was after December 11th) they can still be loaned to the minor leagues until December 23rd.
The Capitals likely don’t want to send either young player down due to their recent success, so we’ll have to wait to see what their decision is or if there is another way to get around the cap issue. For now, we know that Australian Walker is with the Capitals and will be for at least a week.