Joey Crabb was placed on the nonroster list by the Washington Capitals to make room for Mike Green’s return from a groin injury Thursday night at the Winnipeg Jets. The team announced it was waiving Crabb at noon Friday.
Crabb was a healthy scratch for two of the past five games, most recently when Brooks Laich made his season debut Tuesday night at the Pittsburgh Penguins. The 29-year-old right wing has two goals in 26 games, used mostly as a fourth-liner.
The Caps signed Crabb to a one-year, $950,000 contract in July. If he clears waivers at noon Saturday, he will be assigned to the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League. That would clear $900,000 of his cap hit; Washington would only be responsible for $50,000 on its salary cap while Crabb is in the minors.
It’s very possible Crabb doesn’t get that far. He has 170 games’ worth of NHL experience. A team wanting a hard-working fourth-line player who can play penalty-killing minutes could take a chance on the Colorado College grad.
The Caps announced the move Thursday afternoon before Green returned from a 10-game absence with a groin injury. They needed to do something to activate Green from injured reserve and chose this instead of sending Steve Oleksy or Dmitry Orlov back to Hershey.
The collective bargaining agreement allows a team to place a player on the nonroster list with the intention of waiving him to activate another off IR.
