Although Capitals winger Andre Burakovsky is off to a slow start this season, the organization doesn’t have an inclination to trade him, reports Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post. He has been held without a point through the first six games and is coming off of a 25-point campaign from the year before, his lowest output since his rookie campaign. If his struggles continue, the team may have to change their thinking as another quiet year could make him a non-tender candidate as he’ll be owed a qualifying offer of $3.25MM this summer, his salary this season. Given how often Washington is tight to the cap, that could be too rich for them to carry on their books moving forward.
More from the Metropolitan:
- Rangers center Filip Chytil is quickly approaching the nine-game mark where the team will then have to decide on whether or not to keep him up and burn the first year of his entry-level contract. Head coach David Quinn appears to be leaning towards keeping him up as he told reporters, including Brett Cyrgalis of the New York Post, that “As long as he continues to put forth an effort, we’re going to let him play because we think very highly of him. He’s a big piece of our future and I think he could be good right now. This isn’t just about the future, this is about us winning hockey games right now and we think he can help us.” If Chytil does play in his tenth game, the next important threshold will be when he reaches 40 games on the active roster.
- Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones has been cleared for contact in practice, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch. While he won’t play today, he appears to be on the verge of returning to the lineup which will be a big boost for their back end. Jones suffered a torn MCL late in the preseason that had a four-to-six week recovery timeline and it appears he’ll be getting back in the shorter of those two timeframes.