Since the summer of 2019 the Capitals have been rebuilding the franchise after being swept by the Ottawa Senators in the first round. This came after a Cinderella run to the finals and came within 2 games of winning the CDNHL championship. Capital’s GM MacPherson is not a fan of running a mediocre team and knew that the team was going to be spinning it’s wheels and never be a threat. A strong core built around Seguin, Pietrangelo and Bishop gave the team a strong base, but the lack of a supporting cast was the main weakness of the team. So with that in mind GM MacPherson(obviously) decided to blow it up.

Since starting the rebuild the Caps have made the following 1st round selections

2020:2nd Overall – Quinton Byfield

2019:4th Overall – Bowen Byram(traded in the deal to get the Byfield pick)

2019:8th Overall – Vasili Podkolzin

2019:26th Overall – Ville Heinola

2020:26th Overall – Brendan Brisson

While the Capital’s have been thrilled with their selections there is one glaring flaw amongst these picks, lack of high end talent. Byfield is a potential franchise forward in the Caps opinion so this doesn’t include him. Podkolzin is a player that the Caps love and plan to put on the top line with Byfield in a couple of years, but this isn’t due to his offensive talent. Long term the Caps see Podkolzin as a 50 point guy, but a 50 point guy who hits a ton and is good defensively. The pure effort that Podkolzin puts in every shift will make him a good player, it’s just a matter of what his point totals will be. Moving on we’ve got Ville Heinola, a solid puckmoving d-man, the Caps see him long term being a 2nd pairing guy. Last but not least we’ve got Brendan Brisson. Brisson is an interesting player as he could be a top end talent. His hockey IQ is among the highest in the draft and he has a wicked one-timer. There are some flaws in his game, most evidently his skating. Overall this is a good group of prospects but the lack of a true potential showstoppers(besides Byfield of course) will make this rebuild a bit of a longer one.

Overall the Caps hate losing, but they know they’ve got to endure it for the better of the franchise. They currently have 13 picks in the 2021 draft and hope to bolster their prospect pool. After taking a long look at the state of the team, the Caps will likely be a punching bag for the next 2-3 seasons. They have a deep pool of d-prospects having guys such as Soderstrom, Bean and Heinola, but the lack of high end forwards to put around Byfield will have the team lagging behind some of the other rebuilders.

So what is the plan for the next couple of drafts? Easy. Drafting goal scoring wings. The Caps lack a true high end goal scoring wing that they can look at and say “ya you’ll look nice being fed the biscuit by Byfield”. Podkolzin will be a nice powerforward to put beside Byfield but he’s not a true 40-50 goal threat. Now full disclosure with their own 1st round selection in the 2021 draft the Capitals may go against this train of thought. There are a couple of d-men the Capitals are eyeing up as well and may go that route. Whatever the case the Capitals hope to come out with a top 5 pick in the 2021 draft and have a chance of adding another true high end player.

So one might be thinking “what’s the point of this article? All these facts about the team can be easily seen by looking at their prospect list”. Yes hypothetical CDNHL GM questioning this, you’d be right in saying so. But that was not the point of this article. The point of this article was to give the rest of the CDNHL a head start as the Capitals see themselves as a top end contender in a few seasons from now. The Capitals have a plan and are fully planning on executing it.