Iorio Ready To Return From Injury Suffered With Capitals, Officially Cleared For Bears' Calder Cup Playoff Run

The Washington Capitals got a promising sign on the injury front, as defenseman Vincent Iorio has officially been loaned to the Hershey Bears and appears set to return from an upper-body injury that he suffered in his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut.

Iorio appears set to play in Game 3 for the Bears against the Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old was hurt on April 21 in Game 1 of the Capitals' first-round series with the New York Rangers, when he was pushed by Alexis Lafreniere and went hard into the boards, appearing to injure his arm or shoulder.

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Iorio had been filling in on the Washington backend amid an influx of injuries to the NHL blue line, which sidelined Rasmus Sandin and Nick Jensen, among others.

Though he skated once more after the injury and was listed as day-to-day in D.C., Iorio didn't return for another NHL playoff game and missed out on the first part of the Bears' Calder Cup defense as he sat out for just over a month.

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Iorio has been skating with Hershey and progressing to a point where he can take contact, and the time for his return appears to be now with the team slated to have a hard-hitting matchup with the Wolf Pack up in Connecticut.

It's been an interesting season for Iorio, who spent the majority of his time down with the Bears and went through ups and downs in his sophomore pro season. He had four goals and 10 assists in 60 regular season games for Hershey and then got called up at the end of the year. In D.C., he played in six regular-season games.