The Washington Capitals have inked forward Daniel Sprong to a two-year, one-way contract worth an average annual salary of $725,000. Sprong, 23 was acquired by the Capitals from the Anaheim Ducks for defenceman Christian Djoos back in February. He was the Pittsburgh Penguins 46th overall selection in the 2015 NHL Draft that year.
Daniel Sprong Signs With Capitals
The 5′-11″, 191 pound who hails from Amsterdam, Netherlands, participated in 44 games last season with both the San Diego Gulls and Hershey Bears of the AHL. He tallied 12 goals and 21 assists in 44 games. He has 97 career NHL games on his resume including games with the Ducks and Penguins. In the NHL games he has collected 19 goals and 11 assists. Sprong was due to be eligible for restricted free agency and would have been arbitration-eligible. Now he’ll be under contract through the 2021-22 season.
Sprong was envisioned to be a future top-six star in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. He made the cut out of training camp just a few months after being drafted. He played in 18 NHL games as an 18-year-old. His future seemed bright. Sprong then would fail to score a goal in 16 games to start the 2018-19 season and found himself traded to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Marcus Pettersson. Although he added 14 goals in 47 games for the Ducks, it wasn’t enough to keep him off waivers. Then the following training camp he managed to clear waivers. Yet, it was obvious his NHL outlook was not as promising as it once appeared.
What This Means Going Forward
Daniel Sprong has another good shot to get his career back on track. In Washington, the team… like many competing in this pandemic will be looking for an inexpensive option near the bottom of their NHL roster. Sprong may be in the right place at the right time to show what he can do at the NHL level.
He’s still just 23-years-old, and shouldn’t be written off completely at this point. If Sprong can get an opportunity with some of the more skilled players in the Capitals lineup, there’s a chance he succeeds going forward. Still, he’ll need to do more than just contribute at the offensive end of the rink to keep himself up at the NHL level.
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