Nearly eight months after his last game with the Capitals, Sonny Milano is preparing to get back on the ice.
General manager Chris Patrick spoke on Milano’s status on Saturday, indicating that he’d be back for training camp after missing nearly the entire 2024-25 season.
“I actually talked to Sonny a few weeks ago and he feels good,” Patrick said. “He’s preparing to be a player for us at training camp.”
Milano played just three games last fall before an upper-body injury prematurely ended his season in early November. In the days after the injury, the Capitals labeled him as out week-to-week, but his recovery stretched on as the season continued.
He appeared to make some progress in the following months, skating again by December, rejoining practice by January, and shedding his no-contact jersey in February. However, he suffered a “fairly significant setback” in early March and did not return to the ice for the remainder of the season.
Going into the offseason, Patrick had indicated that Milano’s status was still up in the air.
“I think he’s still kind of in that process of trying to see if he can get himself healthy, and I think that’s going to go into the summer, and we’re just going to have to see where he is as the summer goes on,” he said during the team’s Breakdown Day interviews. “We’re going to have to give him some time and space to figure out where he is and how his injuries are holding up, and go from there.”
Seven weeks later, Patrick painted a rosier picture.
“He was doing some offseason traveling and he’s going to get back and then get skating a little earlier than he normally does, and he was excited,” he told reporters Saturday. “He’s ready to go.”
Before his shortened 2024-25 season, Milano recorded 23 points (15g, 8a) and played 49 games in 2023-24. He has one full year remaining on his contract with a cap hit of $1.9 million.
