The Capitals have assigned Ben Clymer to their farm team. For two years, Clymer has provided the Caps with leadership, toughness and first hand knowledge of what it’s like to win a Stanley Cup. This year and next year, he’ll take that knowledge to the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears. Clymer joins Stanley Cup winner Joe Motzko, whom the Caps signed this summer as a free agent and demoted over the weekend, in giving the Bears more than enough experience.

Under the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, if a veteran like Clymer is sent to the minor leagues, he’s very unlikely to return to the team that sent him there. The Caps can try to bring him back, but first they have to put him on re-entry waivers for a day. During that time any team in the league can claim the rights to his contract, and the Caps will still have to pay half of his remaining salary.

Two years ago, Clymer joined Matt Bradley and Brian Sutherby in forming the Capitals “CBS line.” The three gained national fame for providing excellent defense and being a suprisingly good line on an awful team. Clymer scored sixteen goals that year, and twelve last season despite being shuffled in and out of the lineup and regularly switching positions. Any team in the NHL would be lucky to have him, which means the Caps are one team that won’t.

Photograph by Eli Resnick