Screen cap: Capitals

The 2022 NHL Entry Draft gets underway later this week, with rounds one and two taking place on Thursday night and rounds three through seven taking place on Friday. The Washington Capitals currently hold six picks in this years draft, beginning with the 20th and 46th overall picks on Thursday night.

Capitals’ assistant general manager Ross Mahoney held his annual pre-draft media availability on Wednesday morning, and shed some light on the Capitals general thought’s heading into this years draft.

“There’s actually four or five guys we have a lot of interest in. And they kind of vary in position,” said Mahoney. “Some of them are forwards and some of them are defensemen. We feel it’s a really good spot to be in. An opportunity to get a really good, young player to add to our system.”

As we discussed in our previous post, there are clear-cut positional needs from an organizational standpoint, however, the Capitals general philosophy has always been to take the best player available (at the top of their list) at the time of the selection, regardless of position or needs.

Mahoney said he felt the draft held some uncertainty in the early selections, but also added that the value in the draft will possibly come after the first round.

”Even at the very top, there seems to be some uncertainty. You know, obviously we are not picking at the very top. I think in other years there’s been some clear cut names, whether they were the Crosby’s or the Ovechkin’s or the Matthews or the McDavid’s. So I’m actually curious to see when the draft gets started, who’s name will be called out with the first pick,” said Mahoney.

“I think there’s some real good value, too, in the second round, third round, in this years draft. Maybe falls off a little bit after that. Having said all those things, it’s up us to us, our staff.”

Mahoney said there is definitely a possibility for the Capitals to trade back in the draft, but it will really depend on how the draft unfolds.

“I think it’s a possibility. It’s always part of our discussion, even before going to the draft floor. But I mean it depends on the situation, as far as how the list is going, what names are being taken. It only takes one or two names to throw things off a little bit.”

Mahoney’s full pressser:

By Jon Sorensen