At the start of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Braden Holtby and Dany Sabourin made up the Washington Capitals’ goaltending duo. They spent most of the year together with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, but after Holtby’s breakout postseason performance, it was hard to imagine them reuniting yet again.
The NHL lockout did just that, as Holtby and Sabourin will be the Bears’ goalies when they start the 2012-13 season. On his entry-level deal still, Holtby was assigned to the AHL along with Dmitry Orlov, and those two NHL-caliber players headline Hershey’s opening night roster.
Orlov is on a blue line that also includes college free agent Cameron Schilling, whom coach Mark French called Hershey’s best defenseman late last season.
At forward, prospect Stan Galiev is the guy to watch. He joins a group of mostly AHL journeymen who have enjoyed success at that level, including captain Boyd Kane.
Because of the lockout, the Caps’ organizational tree in goal changed drastically. Philipp Grubauer was expected to be in Hershey; instead he’ll split time with Sergei Kostenko and Brandon Anderson with the Reading Royals of the ECHL.
Here’s the full roster, courtesy of the Bears:
GOALTENDERS (2): Braden Holtby, Dany Sabourin
DEFENSEMEN (9): Julien Brouillette, Tomas Kundratek, Kevin Marshall, Patrick McNeill, Steven Oleksy, Dmitry Orlov, Cameron Schilling, Garrett Stafford, Patrick Wellar
FORWARDS (15): Barry Almeida, Mathieu Beaudoin, Mike Carman, Matt Clackson, Jon DiSalvatore, Stanslav Galiev, Zach Hamill, Jon Kalinski, Boyd Kane, Garrett Mitchell, Matt Pope, Ryan Potulny, Mattias Sjogren, Ryan Stoa, Jeff Taffe
