Vrana got another chance in St. Louis, Carlson got 500. nHL assists

The Czech forward Jakub Vrana was called back from the farm to the St. Louis first team, John Carlson is .500. assists in a Capitals jersey. The Washington defenseman is only the third player in franchise history to reach that mark.

Vrana gets another chance in St. Louis

Jakub Vrana has been called up from the AHL farm system, back to the St. Louis Blues first team. Will he grab one last chance with this overseas team? He might, as the Blues no longer have Craig Berube on the bench. Under this coach, Vrana’s ice time was gradually decreasing at first, resulting in him not even fitting on the bench.

Then he was placed on the waiver list (he was offered to other teams), but no one else would take him on their team, which resulted in him going to the AHL minor league to Hershey, the Blues farm team, where he recorded 4 goals and 4 assists in 7 games.

He is now on the bench with St. Louis Drew Benister. We’ll see if Vrana grabs the opportunity by the scruff of the neck and shows if he still has the scoring potential, but he definitely needs more than nine minutes of ice time to do so.

He has 365 games played in the NHL so far with 209 points on 110 goals and 99 assists. Moreover, he celebrated a Stanley Cup victory in 2018 in the colours of Washington, who selected him as the 13th pick in the 2014 draft.

Carlson on the 500 mark. assists

In the game Washington Capitals vs. Carolina Hurricanes (2:6), elite Capitals back John Carlson recorded one assist in the losers’ jersey. It was the 500th assist of his overseas career. He has been with Washington since 2009.

However, he didn’t have much reason to rejoice as Washington suffered a debacle on home ice. Sebastian Aho, the NHL’s last player of the week, contributed with three points. Still, he can take comfort in the fact that he is only the third player in franchise history to reach that mark.

Only Alexander Ovechkin (680) and club record holder Nicklas Backstrom (768) are ahead of him. Only five other active backers in the current NHL have accumulated at least 500 passes. He is only the 34th defenseman in long-term NHL history to surpass that mark.

To make matters worse, he is only the 13th back to do so in the colours of one team. Of course, he’s the club record holder among defensemen and the 23rd defenseman in history not to need to play 1,000 games to reach that mark, as he only needed to play 964 games to do it.

Source: NHL