ARLINGTON, VA — After spending parts of four seasons in the minors, Ethen Frank is finally set to play on NHL ice. Frank, who earned his first career call-up Friday morning, will make his NHL debut at age 26 against the Montreal Canadiens.
The moment has been a long time coming — the Caps have considered bringing Frank up multiple times in past years, and he was one of several players battling for a roster spot at Training Camp. Now that the day has arrived, Frank could hardly describe his glee.
“I don’t know if the words have been invented yet,” he said Friday. “It’s been nothing but pure joy and happiness for me so far.”
Head coach Spencer Carbery, too, was looking forward to Frank’s big moment as the speedy winger will become the first Capitals player to make their NHL debut this season.
“Excited for him,” Carbery said. “It’s been a long road. First NHL game — he’s done a lot of great things in this organization. Had a tremendous start to his professional career in Hershey and earned every second of his moment tonight. So real happy for him.”
Carbery told reporters Frank will play on the right of Lars Eller, with Taylor Raddysh flipping to the left on the team’s third line.
After two All-Star seasons that saw him help lead the Hershey Bears to back-to-back Calder Cup championships, Frank was expected to compete for a spot on the Capitals’ Opening Night Roster this October. But he struggled throughout the preseason: at five-on-five with him on the ice, the Caps were out-chanced 19-14 and had fewer high-danger chances than opponents (9-5), per Natural Stat Trick, while Frank managed just one shot on goal.
The Capitals opted to send Frank back to Hershey two weeks before the end of camp, ultimately signing Jakub Vrana to fill their open roster slot. Frank admits that his performance this fall wasn’t up to snuff.
“Obviously, it wasn’t some of my best games earlier in the year and I learned a lot from it,” he said Friday. “And so I’ll be using that as experience to hopefully help this team get a win tonight for sure.”
Rather than giving up after that missed opportunity, Frank channeled his frustration into his play when he returned to the AHL.
“I mean, just kind of almost using vengeance against myself, because I was upset that I didn’t perform the way I thought I should have, or hoped I would have anyway,” he said. “So just using that fuel, trying to be better, and work my way back up for this moment.”
He highlighted the lessons his unsuccessful training camp taught him, comparing it to what he’s learned through the Bears’ Calder Cup runs.
“Every puck is important,” he said. “You never know when that puck is going to be the game-tying or game-changing goal or the puck that turns over at the blue line that goes back in on odd-man rush or whatever it may be. Everything’s important, and just playing smart, playing hard every shift, no matter what happens.”
Halfway through the 2024-25 season, Frank’s methods have paid off. His 20 goals for Hershey this season rank second in the AHL, he’s recorded 28 points (20g, 8a) in 35 games to tie Mike Sgarbossa for the Bears’ scoring lead, and he earned his third straight AHL All-Star Game nod earlier this week.
Carbery acknowledged Frank’s weak start to the year but praised his approach since returning to Hershey. The second-year bench boss highlighted Frank’s ability to take criticism and integrate it into his game, even beyond what he’s done on the scoresheet.
“He’s just continued to prove that he’s deserving of this opportunity,” Carbery said, later adding, “He didn’t have a great training camp, I would concur with that. We had a lot of good open conversation about that. I think he took it the right way. Sometimes that happens. As much as he wanted to seize that opportunity, because there was some opportunity and he was focused and he was ready, sometimes it doesn’t bounce your way.
“And that’s the way it went: you can be disappointed for a day, a few hours. but then you’ve got to switch your mindset to problem-solving. ‘How am I going to get back there? How am I going to earn an opportunity?’ And that’s exactly what he did. He went down there. He worked on the areas that we communicated to him, of, ‘Here’s what didn’t go well in training camp and in the exhibition games. So make sure you’re doing XYZ when you’re in Hershey. Not just scoring goals. Not just being the fastest skater in the American Hockey League. Here’s what you can do to help prepare yourself for opportunity when it hopefully presents itself.’ And that’s what he’s done.”
Frank’s Bears teammates celebrated his long-awaited recall as he packed up and left for Washington, offering hugs and well-wishes as he gathered his things.
“You haven’t seen someone shoot a puck until you’ve witnessed this man shoot one,” Bears defenseman Chase Priskie wrote of Frank on social media. “First shot first goal… book it!”
Eight and a half years after going undrafted, four seasons after arriving in Hershey, and close to two years after signing an NHL deal, Frank is ready to make his debut with “a small army of seven or eight” loved ones making the trip to cheer him on. But while Frank’s ready to savor the moment, he knows he still has plenty of work to do.
“It means a lot,” he said. “We’re players and working our way our whole lives up to this league and on this level of hockey, and so it means a lot. But it’s just a hockey game. I’ve been playing my whole life and so I’m just going to try not to overthink it and just go out there and play fast and play hard.”
