Capitals' Tom Wilson to make season debut Sunday

The good news for Washington keeps on coming. After revealing earlier that center Nicklas Backstrom will make his season debut on Sunday against Columbus, the Capitals have now announced that winger Tom Wilson will also suit up for the first time in 2022-23 against the Blue Jackets.

The 28-year-old underwent surgery back in May to repair a torn ACL. Originally diagnosed with a recovery period of six to eight months, this return date falls pretty much in the middle of that range.

While Wilson has gotten himself into trouble from a league disciplinary standpoint over the years, he has also become one of the premier power forwards in the NHL. He has reached the 20-goal mark in three of the last four seasons with the one he didn’t being the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign in which he scored at a 23-goal pace.

As is the case with Backstrom, Wilson will certainly need some time to get back into prime playing shape but he’ll be a big addition to what has already been a fairly deep attack so far this season. He has spent a lot of time in recent years on Washington’s top line, and while it will likely take a little while for him to get there, that could very well be the spot he winds up in eventually.

With Washington’s lone waiver-exempt forward being Aliaksei Protas who is likely to be sent down to make room for Backstrom, the Capitals will likely have to turn to the waiver wire to create a spot for Wilson to be activated into. Wingers Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Joe Snively appear to be the likeliest casualties — they have limited roles when they’ve been in the lineup. While the Capitals could designate one of them as waivers/non-roster on Sunday, it’s possible that they could make that waiver placement on Saturday, freeing up the roster spot and cap space before formally activating both Wilson and Backstrom.