Capitals recall wing prospect who has shown flashes of upside

The Capitals announced they’ve recalled right wing Matthew Phillips from AHL Hershey. He is expected to replace winger Tom Wilson in the lineup, who will miss Friday’s game and likely many more as he faces an in-person hearing with the Department of Player Safety today for a high-sticking incident in Wednesday’s 7-3 loss to the Maple Leafs.

The club had 14 forwards on their active roster before the injury. However, three of them – Wilson, T.J. Oshie (upper-body, day-to-day) and Aliaksei Protas (lower-body, day-to-day) – are unavailable or uncertain against the Hurricanes Friday night.

Phillips, 25, began the season on an opening-night roster for the first time after inking a one-year, $775K deal with the Caps in free agency. One of the AHL’s most potent offensive threats over the past few seasons, the diminutive forward struggled to adapt to a full-time NHL role, posting only a goal and five points in 27 games and becoming a frequent healthy scratch after the New Year.

That led the Capitals to place him on waivers in mid-February, but he didn’t make it to the minors and was instead claimed by the Penguins. He had minimal impact with Washington’s longtime rival as well, going pointless in three games before serving as a healthy scratch in five straight and landing on waivers once again. Since the subsequent waiver placement was less than 30 days after the Caps lost him, Washington could reclaim and send him directly to AHL Hershey without exposing him to waivers, which they took advantage of.

Unsurprisingly, Phillips has looked like his old self on the best team in the AHL, recording three points and a +2 rating in four games since returning to the Capitals organization earlier this month. The 2016 sixth-round pick of the Flames has 240 points in 269 games since making his AHL debut with Stockton in 2017 and posted over a point-per-game in back-to-back seasons with the Flames’ primary affiliate before earning the one-way deal with Washington last summer.

Despite that level of production, Phillips never got much of a crack at the NHL level with Calgary, only skating in three games and averaging 10:48 with the Flames between 2020 and 2023. While he was a low-risk, high-reward signing for Washington, he was far from a proven commodity, and a lack of production and solid possession metrics in his extended chance earlier this season has likely ended the 5-foot-7 winger’s chances of cracking an NHL roster full-time.

He still carries value for organizations at the minor-league level as a premier talent to play with their top prospects on the farm and there are certainly worse call-up options in a pinch to fill an offensively-inclined role. If head coach Spencer Carbery doesn’t want to shuffle his other lines, Phillips could directly replace Wilson’s spot on the second line alongside rookie Ivan Miroshnichenko and co-leading scorer Dylan Strome.

The Calgary native will be an RFA with arbitration rights this summer, although he’s a strong candidate to not receive a qualifying offer and reach the open market after reaching UFA status under Group 6 rules last summer.