ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Life has not been easy for Jakub Vrana on or off the ice.
Since 2021, he been traded twice, entered and cleared the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, gone on waivers and spent time in the minors. Now, he is back at training camp with the Washington Capitals on a professional tryout agreement, looking to get his career back on track six years since helping them win the Stanley Cup.
“My journey? It was difficult, man,” Vrana said. "Things happened over the past few years, but I already put that behind me and I’m ready to see this as a new opportunity to bounce back.”
Vrana is only 28, was a first-round draft pick and has twice scored more than 20 goals in a season. He also scored in Washington's 2018 Cup-clinching victory — the biggest of his 165 points with the organization he broke in with.
Boston winger and fellow Czech countryman David Pastrnak has trained with Vrana for the past 13 years. After seeing him in the gym this past summer, he was optimistic about Vrana's chances of earning a job in the NHL.
“Obviously super cheering for him,” Pastrnak said. “We all know he’s very fit, and he’s physically prepared. He looks very good and very in shape, so I really hope that he can get his career running again.”
Vrana on his most recent deal was making more than $5 million a year, which is the going rate for wingers who can produce offensively as much as he has. To stick with the Capitals and earn a guaranteed contract for the season, he will have to do more than put the puck in the net.
“The thing that I want to see is the compete level, the work level of, ‘This is a great opportunity for you, but through practices, through scrimmages, you’re going to need to show myself, the rest of the coaches, management how bad that you want this,'” coach Spencer Carbery said, acknowledging Vrana could help his team with much-needed scoring. "I just want to see him competing on every puck, coming back and stopping on pucks, tracking — doing all the little things when he doesn’t have the puck."
New general manager Chris Patrick, whose decision it ultimately was to offer the tryout, said he can tell Vrana is taking the opportunity seriously.
“He doesn’t think anything is being handed to him” Patrick said. "That was kind of the point. We want to have a competitive camp. We don’t want to just give away spots to guys. We want them to earn it. He’s in a group of several players that are in that position fighting for one or two spots.”
After an offseason roster overhaul, the Capitals have several new forwards, including wingers Andrew Mangiapane, Brandon Duhaime and Taylor Raddysh. They are all under contract and will make the team.
Many of Washington's longest-tenured players hope Vrana joins them.
“Everybody battles their demons in life, and there’s some ups and downs and, from talking to him, he’s taken accountability, he’s taken ownership on that,” said winger Tom Wilson, who along with Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson are the only players left from the '18 Cup champions. “He wants to be better and he wants to be happy and find his groove. I think it’s been great seeing him. He’s a guy that you root for a guy that I’ll play with any day of the week.”
Ovechkin said he thinks Vrana is “motivated to bounce back and play hard and do smart things.” Carlson sees a player ”champing at the bit to get another chance" and ready to make the most of it.
Being in a familiar setting, around former teammates who became friends, figures to put Vrana in a good position to succeed. With his future in hockey at stake, he is trying to balance the benefits of that familiarity with the new challenge he is facing to win a roster spot.
"I feel great, and I have still a lot to prove," Vrana said. “Don’t overthink it too much. Just go and play, do what you can do out there and just go and show that you can play in this league.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Washington Capitals' Jakub Vrana, left, collides with Philadelphia Flyers' Noah Cates (27) during the third period of a preseason NHL hockey game Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)
FILE - Washington Capitals left wing Jakub Vrana, of the Czech Republic, celebrates his goal during the second period in Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup Finals against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, June 7, 2018, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Lamar Jackson thought it was over. That the Baltimore Ravens' unwieldy season would end up in a familiar spot: the playoffs.
Then, rookie kicker Tyler Loop's potential game-winning field goal from 44 yards out drifted a little right. And then a little further right. And then a little further right still.
By the time it fluttered well wide of the goalposts, the playoffs were gone. So was Jackson's certainty after a 26-24 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday night sent the Ravens into what could be a turbulent offseason.
“I'm definitely stunned, man,” Jackson said. “I thought we had it in the bag. ... I don't know what else we can do.”
Jackson, who never really seemed fully healthy during his eighth season as he battled one thing after another, did his part. The two-time NFL MVP passed for 238 yards and three touchdowns, including two long connections with Zay Flowers in the fourth quarter that put the Ravens (8-9) in front.
It just wasn't enough. Baltimore's defense, which played most of the second half without star safety Kyle Hamilton after Hamilton entered the concussion protocol, wilted against 42-year-old Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Rodgers passed for a season-high 294 yards, including a 26-yard flip to a wide-open Calvin Austin with 55 seconds to go after a defender slipped, symbolic of a season in which Baltimore's defense only occasionally found its form.
Still, the Ravens had a chance when Jackson found Isaiah Likely for a 28-yard gain on fourth down from midfield. A couple of snaps later, the 24-year-old Loop walked on to try to lift Baltimore to its third straight division title.
Instead, the rookie said he “mishit” it. Whatever it was, it never threatened to sneak between the goalposts.
“It’s disappointing,” Loop said.
Loop was talking about the game. He might as well have been talking about his team's season.
The Ravens began 1-5 as Jackson dealt with injuries and the defense struggled to get stops. Baltimore found a way to briefly tie the Steelers for first in late November, only to then split its next four games, including a home loss to Pittsburgh.
Still, when Jackson and the Ravens walked onto the Acrisure Stadium turf on Sunday night in the 272nd and final game of the NFL regular season, Baltimore was confident. The Ravens drilled Pittsburgh in the opening round of the playoffs a year ago behind the ever-churning legs of running back Derrick Henry.
When Henry ripped off a gain of 40-plus yards on the game's first offensive snap, it looked like it was going to be more of the same. While Henry did rush for 126 yards and joined Hall of Famer Barry Sanders as the only running backs in NFL history to have five 1,500-yard seasons, he was less effective in the second half.
Even that first run was telling of what night it was going to be, as an illegal block by wide receiver Zay Flowers cost Baltimore some field position. The Ravens ended up scoring on the drive anyway, thanks to a 38-yard fourth-down flip from Jackson to a wide-open Devontez Walker, but it started a pattern that was hard to shake as several steps forward were met with one step back on a night the Ravens finished with nine penalties for 78 yards.
“We were having a lot of penalties, which kept stopping drives," Jackson said. “But I'm proud of my guys because we kept overcoming. We kept overcoming adversity and situations like this. Divisional games (can) be like that sometimes.”
Particularly when the Steelers are on the other side of the line of scrimmage. Pittsburgh has won 10 of the last 13 meetings. And while a handful of them have been in late-season matchups with the Ravens already assured of reaching the playoffs, the reality is the Steelers have been able to regularly do something that most others have not: found a way to beat Jackson.
“It comes down to situations like this,” Jackson said. “Two-point conversion one year. Field goal another year. And again this year. Just got to find a way to get that win here.”
And figure out who is going to be around to help get it.
Head coach John Harbaugh's 18th season in Baltimore ended with the Ravens missing the playoffs for just the second time in eight years. Jackson turns 29 this week and is still one of the most electric players in the league.
Yet Harbaugh and Jackson have yet to find a way to have that breakthrough season that Harbaugh enjoyed with Joe Flacco in 2013 when the Ravens won the Super Bowl.
There was hope when the season began that the roadblocks that have long been in the franchise's way — Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes chief among them — would be gone.
While the Ravens did get their way in a sense — the Chiefs will watch the playoffs from afar for the first time in a decade after a nightmarish season of their own — it never all came together.
Jackson declined to endorse Harbaugh returning for a 19th season, saying the loss was still too fresh to zoom out on what it might mean for the franchise going forward.
Harbaugh, for his part, certainly seems up for running it back in the fall.
“I love these guys,” he said afterward. “I love these guys.”
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, right, hands the ball off to running back Derrick Henry (22) during the first half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh talks with an offical during the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward, left, greets Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) after an NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
Pittsburgh Steelers safety Jabrill Peppers (40) reacts after Baltimore Ravens kicker Tyler Loop (33) missed a field goal attempt in the second half of an NFL football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
