Metropolitan Notes: Chychrun, Milano, Sullivan, Stillman

After fellow first-year Capital Matt Roy returned to action from a lengthy injury absence on Wednesday, Jakob Chychrun is close to following in his footsteps. Chychrun shed his no-contact designation in practice this morning, per NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti, who adds that he’s questionable to come off injured reserve for tonight’s game against the Penguins.

Prior to sustaining an upper-body injury against the Rangers last week, Chychrun had two goals and two assists while averaging 21:14 through Washington’s first seven games, around the average level of production we’ve come to expect from him after some wild year-to-year swings.

It’s a big year for Chychrun, who’s in the final season of the six-year, $27.6MM extension he signed with the Coyotes way back in 2018 and will be an unrestricted free agent next July. The Caps surrendered Nick Jensen and a third-round pick to acquire him from the Senators, who held onto him for just over one season after sending a trio of draft picks to Arizona to acquire him at the 2023 trade deadline. He put up 41 points (14 G, 27 A) from Ottawa’s blue line last season in 82 games, his highest offensive totals in three years. He’d been skating in a top-pairing role in Washington alongside John Carlson, controlling 56.1% of expected goals, per MoneyPuck.

While Washington may get Chychrun back, they’ll be without winger Sonny Milano after he sustained an upper-body injury versus the Predators on Wednesday, head coach Spencer Carbery told Gulitti. Before the injury, Milano had been a healthy scratch in all but three Caps games this season. Jakub Vrána will re-enter the lineup in his place after sitting in favor of Milano for the last two games, while they’ll likely recall a forward from AHL Hershey to have a healthy extra for their one-off road game in St. Louis on Saturday.

Here’s more on the Metropolitan:

• Almost nothing has gone right this season for the Penguins, who now sit seventh in the Metro with a 5-8-2 record entering tonight’s rivalry matchup with Washington. It’s the second half of a back-to-back for them – they outshot the Hurricanes last night 36-18 but still lost 5-1. “I thought we had a lot of guys who played really hard and didn’t get rewarded for their efforts,” head coach Mike Sullivan said postgame (via Josh Yohe of The Athletic). “But I think there were a few guys that didn’t live up to the expectations. It’s hard. We need everybody to bring it every night to have a chance to win.” Yohe wrote that he’s “never heard him question the effort of individual players in the manner in which he did after this game.“
• Hurricanes depth defenseman Riley Stillman is “getting close” to being cleared to play after sitting out the first month with a lower-body injury, head coach Rod Brind’Amour told the team’s Walt Ruff. He’ll travel with the club on their upcoming three-game road swing. After spending all of last season in the AHL with the Sabres’ affiliate in Rochester, the 26-year-old inked a two-way deal with the Canes in free agency and could stick around as a seventh defenseman.