The NHL Draft order for the first 27 selections was finalized on late Wednesday night after the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs concluded. Picks 28 and 29 will likely be determined after the Conference Finals end and the final two picks of Round 1 of the NHL Draft will likely be released after the 2019 Stanley Cup Final conclude. Barring a trade, the Washington Capitals will select 25th overall in Round 1 of the NHL Draft, which will take place on Friday, June 21 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
With the Conference Finals set, we now know which clubs will be selecting from No.16 all the way to No.27 in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft this June.
16. COL
17. VGK
18. DAL
19. OTT (CBJ)
20. NYR (WPG)
21. PIT
22. LAK (TOR)
23. NYI
24. NAS
25. WAS
26. CGY
27. TBL pic.twitter.com/qMk2DAvBef— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) May 9, 2019
The Capitals are in desperate need of high-end forward prospects as they have not spent a first-round pick on a forward since 2014, when they selected left wing Jakub Vrana, who has already graduated to the NHL. They have taken a goalie (Ilya Samsonov in 2015) and two defensemen (Lucas Johansen in 2016 and Alexander Alexeyev in 2018) with each of their past three selections. They traded their first-round pick in 2017 to the St. Louis Blues in a trade that sent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk to Washington at the trade deadline that season.
The Capitals sent their third-round pick this year to the Los Angeles Kings in the deal for forward Carl Hagelin at the 2019 Trade Deadline. They also traded their sixth-round pick to the Vancouver Canucks in a swap of draft picks last year. The team selected forward Alex Kannock-Leipert 161st overall, the pick that they got from the Canucks. Their fifth-round pick belongs to the Minnesota Wild via the Montreal Canadiens. The Capitals gave up that pick to acquire defenseman Jakub Jerabek from the Canadiens at the trade deadline last season. The Canadiens sent that pick to the Wild to acquire defenseman Mike Reilly five days after they acquired it.
The New York Islanders, who were second in the Metropolitan Division with 103 points in the regular season and were swept by the Carolina Hurricanes in the Second Round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, will pick 23rd overall. The Pittsburgh Penguins, who finished third in the Metropolitan Division with 100 points during the regular season and were swept by the Islanders in the First Round of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, will select 21st overall.
The rest of the selection order for the 2019 NHL Draft will be announced after the 2019 Stanley Cup Final.
By Harrison Brown