Welcome to the week 9 Washington Capitals prospect report. The following includes game action and news that occurred between November 11 and November 17, 2019. (Reminder: you can always access all of our prospect news and analysis in the top menu under “Prospects”. You can also access the latest Capitals prospect news on Twitter under the #CapsProspect hashtag.

PREVIOUS WEEKLY RECAPS

• Week 8 Report (11/4 – 11/10) here.
• Week 7 Report (10/28 – 11/3): here.
• Week 6 Report (10/21 – 10/27): here.
• Week 5 Report (10/14 – 10/20): here.
• Week 4 Report (10/7 – 10/13) : here.
• Week 3 Report (9/30 – 10/6): here.
• Week 2 Report (9/23 – 9/29: here.
• Week 1 Report (9/16 – 9/22): here.

MONTHLY PROSPECT REPORTS

• October: here.

AHL/HERSHEY BEARS
The Bears offense and power play continue to struggle. Hershey opened the week with a 1-0 shootout loss to the Penguins in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday. On Friday, the Bears were shutout at home 3-0 by the Charlotte Checkers. Hershey rebounded on Saturday with a 2-1 victory over the Checkers. Liam O’Brien would score the Bears first goal in the game, which was the Bears first goal in 7+ periods of play.

Pheonix Copley – Due to roster management moves related to salary cap issues in Washington, Vitek Vanecek was recalled by the Capitals, thus Copley made all three starts for the Bears this week. He played well in each game. Copley was very strong in the 1-0 shootout loss to the Penguins on Monday, registering an official shutout for the game. Copley stopped 25 of 27 in Friday nights 3-0 loss to the Checkers, and stopped 17 of 18 in Saturday nights victory over the Checkers. For the season, Copley is now 4-4-3-1 with a 2.40 GAA and a .906 save percentage.

Riley Sutter – was officially loaned to the Bears on Tuesday. He was on the Capitals “season opening injured reserve” list to start the season after being injured in the first game of this year’s prospect tournament. (More here). He played in his first career AHL game on Friday night against the Checkers.

Congratulations to #CapsProspect Riley Sutter for making his AHL debut last night. 👊💪🏼 (📸 Caroline O’Connor/Hershey Bears/Great Save Productions) pic.twitter.com/Nx9B2fpwqb

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) November 16, 2019

The Bears are still looking for several members of the “Year 2 Crew” (Shane Gersich, Garret Pilon and Brian Pinho) to get their offensive production rolling this season. The three players have scored a total of four goals. AHL sophomores Beck Malenstyn (3 goals) and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby (5 goals) have been solid contributors to the offensive production so far this season.

Martin Fehervary and Alex Alexeyev continue to lead all Bears rookies in points with 8 points each. (Our interview with Fehervary this week is here. Our interview this with Alexeyev this weekend is here.)

OHL/WHL

Connor McMichael
On Monday, McMichal scored in the OHL. vs. Russia series.

In front of a home crowd, Connor McMichael gets the @OHLHockey on the board first with the re-direct in front. 🚨@GoLondonKnights | @Capitals pic.twitter.com/RqghSpBSjC

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 12, 2019

After the game, McMichael’s head coach at London, Capitals great Dale Hunter, commented on McMichael’s game, saying “he’s pretty tricky and knows how to score goals”.

“It’s one phase where you get to see them play under pressure against a good team.”

Team #OHL and @HC_WJC head coach Dale Hunter weighed in on Monday’s 3-2 shootout loss. @cibc #CANvsRUS 🎥 pic.twitter.com/LR7NYFKcYh

— OntarioHockeyLeague (@OHLHockey) November 12, 2019

On Friday night, McMichael had an assist on two shots, was a -2 and 2 for 4 in faceoffs.

On Sunday McMichael would score early in the second period to give the Knights a 2-1 lead over Kitchener.

‘Big Mac’ does it again. McMichael scores his 20th goal of the season, this time on the power play. (20g, 23a) in 18 games so far this season. @con91mcmichael #CapsProspect pic.twitter.com/8weClICz1o

— NoVa Caps (@NoVa_Caps) November 17, 2019

The goal extended McMichael’s point streak to 11 consecutive games. For the season, McMichael has 20 goals and 23 assists on 82 shots for a shooting percentage of 24.4%.

Aliaksei Protas
Protas would score a big goal in Saturday night’s game against Regina. The tally would tie the game at 3-3 at 6:36 in the final frame.

On Sunday Protas was held to an assist. For the season, Protas has 14 goals and 18 assists on 73 shots for a shooting percentage 24.6%. He is tied for first in points fourth in goals in the WHL.

OTHER PROSPECTS

• Mitchell Gibson  (G) – Gibson continues to be strong in goal for Harvard. On Friday night he stopped 27 of 28 in a 4-1 win over Brown, improving his record to 3-0-0. For the season he has stopped 90 of 93 shots for a .968 save percentage. He leads all of NCAA goaltenders in GAA and save percentage. Gibson also earned ECAC Goaltender of the Week honors. (Here)
• Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen (F) – scored his 3rd goal of the season Saturday against Morrums. Game highlights video is here.
• Damien Riat – Riat continues to recover from his injury. As we mentioned in last week’s update, the 22-year-old took a puck to his face in last Saturday’s game against HC Lugano. The incident resulted in a concussion. Riat was released from the hospital on Tuesday (11/5) and is expected to be out of the lineup for about three weeks. Riat was invited to take part in the Deutschland Cup, but as reported earlier this week, will be replaced by Luca Hischier.

By Jon Sorensen

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NoVa Caps (@nova_caps)