Former Capitals forward Jakub Vrana appears to be taking his talents overseas.
Swedish outlet Expressen reported Monday that Vrana is set to sign with his former junior team, Linköping HC, and return to the SHL for the 2025-26 season. He previously played four seasons with Linköping as a teenager, becoming a fan favorite, before making the move to North America.
Linköping general manager Peter Jakobsson publicly expressed a desire to sign Vrana earlier this summer, though the prospect appeared unlikely at the time.
“We have a dialogue and Jakub is well aware of our interest,” he said then, via Google Translate. “It would always be an exciting name for us. Of course we keep in touch with him and the agent, but as before it is a long shot.”
Expressen’s Johan Svensson reports that the two sides have reached an agreement, with sponsors prepared to help pay Vrana’s salary, and that an announcement could come as soon as next week. He added, per Google Translate, that Vrana will be “well paid.”
The move likely marks the end of Vrana’s NHL career after nine seasons. His time in the league started with a long-term stint in Washington, but he became something of a journeyman in later years, facing a series of challenges both on and off the ice. After the Capitals dealt him to the Detroit Red Wings at the 2021 trade deadline, Vrana missed much of the 2021-22 season between recovering from a shoulder injury and receiving treatment from the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.
He re-joined the Red Wings in March of 2022 but spent the next several years bouncing between the NHL and AHL, even after Detroit sent him to the St. Louis Blues in 2023.
“It was difficult, man,” Vrana said in September when discussing his his post-Capitals years. “I had to deal with some stuff off the ice too, so things have been difficult for me.”
Vrana eventually returned to DC in almost storybook fashion, re-joining his former club on a PTO last fall and earning a contract out of training camp. He told reporters at the time that coming to Washington, in particular, held extra meaning.
“Washington is always going to be in my heart and I always wanted to play here,” he said. “Like I said before, this chance means a lot to me.”
Though Vrana was a semi-regular part of the lineup in the early months of the season, he played just one game for Washington after Ethen Frank made his NHL debut on January 10.
Vrana’s second tenure with the Capitals ended in March when the Nashville Predators claimed him off waivers. He played in 13 of the Predators’ final 20 games of the season and averaged 11:23 a night when in the lineup, but he did not re-sign with the team when he hit free agency once again in July.
Vrana will become the second notable Capitals alumn to sign in the SHL this offseason alongside Nicklas Backstrom, who announced his return to Brynäs IF on Monday.
