The Capitals will activate defenseman Rasmus Sandin from injured reserve before tonight’s game against the Blues, head coach Spencer Carbery told reporters (including Bailey Johnson of The Washington Post). They quietly placed center Pierre-Luc Dubois on IR in the corresponding move after receiving word he’ll be out for several weeks.
Sandin hasn’t played since Oct. 21 due to an upper-body injury, missing five games. He’s been skating in a non-contact jersey for over a week now, so conditioning shouldn’t be much of an issue.
Before the absence, Sandin was off to a fine start. His offensive production was a bit lacking through seven games, logging only two assists after hitting 30 points in 82 games last year. However, he supplemented that with a +3 rating and has been increasingly active with the puck on his stick. His 3.14 shot attempts per game stand as a career high, and he also demonstrated a bit more physicality than usual, with 16 hits. Overall, he’s been a bit more involved in the play than he was last year, despite only a marginal increase in average ice time from 19:11 to 19:24 per game.
The 25-year-old is in the early stages of his third full season with Washington after being acquired from the Maple Leafs near the 2023 trade deadline. He’s seen his ice time slightly reduced during his tenure, as the club has added other notable names like Jakob Chychrun via trade and Matt Roy via free agency. However, he still plays a critical support role and could see his usage increase after this season if pending unrestricted free agent John Carlson doesn’t return. While regarded as an offensive-minded blue liner, he’s been paired with Roy at even strength this season and used in a primarily defensive capacity. The duo has only allowed one goal against in 76 minutes of 5-on-5 play, but has also only been on the ice for one goal for during that time.
Chychrun slotted in next to Roy in Sandin’s absence, and that duo fared better, both in actual goals share (60%) and expected goals share (64.6%), per MoneyPuck. They’re keeping that duo together and bumping Sandin down to third-pairing deployment with Trevor van Riemsdyk as a result, according to Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. Sandin will still quarterback Washington’s second power play unit.