Milano To Make Capitals Debut vs. Coyotes On Top-6

ARLINGTON, V.A. — It looks like it’s Sonny Milano time for the Washington Capitals.

The 26-year-old was skating on the second line with Marcus Johansson and Dylan Strome at the team’s morning skate and will make his Capitals debut on Saturday as the team faces off against the Arizona Coyotes. No. 15 was also breaking in his Reverse Retro gear.

Milano earned a call-up to Washington on Wednesday amid an influx of injuries. Washington is currently without seven skaters, including Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson, Connor Brown, Carl Hagelin, Beck Malenstyn and John Carlson. Four of those are top-6 forwards, where Milano hopes to show he can play on a consistent basis.

Here are the full line combinations from morning skate:

Alex Ovechkin-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Conor Sheary

Sonny Milano-Dylan Strome-Marcus Johansson

Connor McMichael-Lars Eller-Anthony Mantha

Aliaksei Protas-Nic Dowd-Garnet Hathaway

Dmitry Orlov-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Martin Fehervary-Nick Jensen

Erik Gustafsson-Matt Irwin

Joe Snively and Lucas Johansen are the extras.

READ MORE ON WHN: When Will Injuries, Inconsistency Force Washington Capitals To Make A Move? 

Milano is coming off a decent 2021-22 campaign with the Anaheim Ducks, where he had great chemistry with the likes of Trevor Zegras and finished with 14 goals and 20 assists in 66 games. However, a slow second half of the season and arbitration concerns led Anaheim to not tender Milano a qualifying offer, and he hit free agency. After going unsigned heading into camp, he earned a professional tryout with the Calgary Flames but was released after a so-so training camp.

The Capitals inked Milano to a one-year, one-way $750,000 contract on Oct. 16 after a rough offseason. He started down with the AHL’s Hershey Bears to get up to full game speed and got off to a red-hot start with two goals and an assist in the first five games while making an immediate impact on the top 6.

In 197 career NHL games, Milano has 36 goals and 45 assists for 81 points.