Washington Capitals Prospect Update: February

Another month’s look at the latest from the Caps’ prospect cupboard

CHL

Jake Karabela, C
JAN: 12GP – 4G – 5A – 9PTS
SEASON: 57GP – 18G – 19A – 37PTS

Based on the Storm’s social media, it would seem that Karabela is tearing it up every game – but he still is only on pace to basically tie last year’s total, which isn’t good. Not a huge deal because he’s still very young and very versatile – he’s played just about every forward position on the first three lines – and probably nothing to be worried about…yet. But next season, things will need to improve.

Hakon Hanelt, C/W
FEB: 0GP
SEASON: 28GP – 3G – 14A – 17 PTS

Hanelt went off to the World Juniors in December and right before the games were about to matter he was injured and he has stayed injured, missing all of January and February. Injuries have always been a concern with Hanelt, so this most recent injury doesn’t bode well.

Ryan Hofer, C
FEB: 11GP – 9G – 6A – 15PTS
SEASON: 53GP – 36G – 22A – 58PTS

Hofer is continuing a strong season, lighting up the lamp consistently (scoring a hat trick this month). He now sits at seventh in the WHL in goal scoring. He was traded to a strong Kamloops team, playing a lot of 2C and producing well. Again, he is a double over-ager so he should be doing well but it’s better than not producing!

Alexander Suzdalev, LW
FEB: 10GP – 9G – 6A – 15PTS
SEASON: 54GP – 34G – 41A – 75PTS

Suzdalev continues to have an amazing season that no one seems to be paying attention to. He currently site FIFTH in WHL scoring and 18 point lead in rookie scoring, with two games in hand, and is eighth in overall goals, which includes his first hat trick. He seems to be adapting pretty well to his first season in North America.

Dru Krebs, LHD
FEB: 8GP – 0G – 6A – 6PTS
SEASON: 55GP – 5G – 30A – 35PTS

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Krebs keeps chugging along, vastly improving on his point total from last season (19) and has become a stable top pairing defensemen for his team. This is a good step for Krebs development who spent last season on the worst team in the league. He’s the only drafted player on his team, so he isn’t getting much help, but he’s producing with what he has.

NCAA

Joaquim Lemay, LHD
FEB: 6GP – 0G – 1A – 1PTS
SEASON: 27GP – 1G – 9A – 10PTS

Lemay is still riding the lineup of being a starter and playing #7 minutes. He’s a freshman and this tends to always happen. He just needs to stick with it and he’ll get more minutes as the seasons go on.

Brent Johnson, RHD
FEB: 0GP
SEASON: 13GP – 1G – 5A – 6PTS

Johnson has been injured since the beginning of December and has yet to play. Hopefully he gets back on the ice soon because he was having a good season otherwise.

David Gucciardi, LHD
FEB: 6GP – 2G – 1A – 3PTS
SEASON: 35GP – 4G – 5A – 9PTS

Gucciardi has been chugging along all season doing fine, not great. He’s on pace to basically score the same amount of points as last season, which is never a good sign. You want to see players add onto their point totals every season. But David is definitely not an offensive defensemen. If he’s ever going to bring value to the NHL it will be through his defense.

Ryan Chesley, RHD
FEB: 2GP – 0G – 0A – 0PTS
SEASON: 30GP – 2G – 5A – 7PTS

It looked like Chesley was just starting to get going but unfortunately suffered an injury and was limited to just two games in February. The good news is he should be back for the playoffs.

Chase Clark, G
SEASON: 7GP – 3.17GAA .840sv%

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Those stats don’t look amazing but Clark has yet to even start a game because he’s backing one of the best goalies in college, Yaniv Perets, and all seven appearances have been in relief. Tough to put up good stats in a situation like that. For now, he’ll just have to keep sitting in the back and be ready if he’s ever called upon.

Mitchell Gibson, G
SEASON: 22GP – 2.19GAA, .920SV%

Gibson had a good bounceback February after a down January. He helped get Harvard to the Beanpot final, and while he played a great game, they eventually lost in a shootout. As his season comes to an end, it will be interesting to see if he signs with the Caps or not.

EUROPE

Bogdan Trineyev, LW
KHL
FEB: 8GP – 0G – 1A – 1PTS
SEASON: 39GP – 2G -11A – 13PTS

Bogdan was on a fantastic tear there for while. In 16 games he scored two goals and nine assists while playing on the third line, but he hasn’t registered a point in his last seven games. Don’t know what the exact reason is but during that tear he was playing 15-16 minutes a night and it looks like during this last bad stretch he topped out at 13 minutes and played as low as five minutes, so the guess is he went from third line to fourth line. We’ll see how he’s utilized in the playoffs.

Ivan Miroshnichenko, LW
KHL
FEB: 6GP – 1G – 0A – 1PTS
SEASON: 23GP – 3G – 1A – 4PTS

The good news is Ivan has been playing in the second best league in the world, the bad news is he isn’t getting the most minutes. in fact, four of the games he played he played ZERO minutes (one he technically got 0:21 TOI but I’m not counting that). He literally just sat on the bench. He also got some time in the MHL this month, getting three points in four games, but he’s back in the KHL. It’s frustrating how his team is utilizing him. The perfect place for him would be playing top line in the VHL but they either keep sending him to the MHL or fourth in the KHL, both bad for his development.

Tobias Geisser, LHD
National League (Swiss)
FEB: 9GP – 2G – 2A – 4PTS
SEASON: 50GP – 7G – 13A – 20PTS

Geisser will never be confused for being an offensive defensemen but it’s good to see him keep producing at the level he has so far. He’s got a lot about his game that seems Jonas Siegenthaler-esque: a high-end shutdown defensemen with size and speed.

Damien Riat, RW
National League (Swiss)
FEB: 9GP: 1G – 3A – 4PTS
SEASON: 50GP – 9G – 16A – 25PTS

Riat is projected to score two fewer points than last season in 15 more games. It’s doubtful he’ll ever come back to North America, though, so while it’s never great if a prospect doesn’t pan out, it won’t be a surprise nor a huge loss for the organization at this point.

Ludwig Persson, C/LW
HockeyAllsvenskan
FEB: 9GP – 0G – 1A – 1PTS
SEASON: 41GP – 4G – 11A – 15PTS

Persson has continued to have a decent season in what is essentially Sweden’s AHL-type development league. It’s unknown how much time he’s getting or where he’s being slotted, but while more production would be nice, there’s nothing to be concerned about as of now. He did get one game in the SHL, which is promising, it probably means coaches like what they see. It must be defensive reasons because he isn’t producing a whole lot.

Oskar Magnusson, C/RW
HockeyAllsvenskan
FEB: 11GP – 1G – 1A – 2PTS
SEASON: 49GP – 6G – 10A – 14PTS

Like Persson, Oskar is having a good-not-great season. He is currently projected to basically double his point total from last season, but in 11 more games. So all in all, good, but you’d like to see more from him.

ECHL

Bear Hughes, C
FEB: 12GP – 2G – 6A – 8PTS
SEASON: 49GP – 18G – 28A – 46PTS

It’s baffling what the Hughes team is doing with him. He was producing as one of the best young forwards in the ECHL, producing over a point per game, and getting into the All Star game, then they just put him on the third line for some reason. No idea why. Maybe to spread out the scoring but it took a hit on Hughes production. Hopefully he gets back to the top six and stays there.

Martin Hugo Has, RHD
FEB: 10GP – 1G – 1A – 2PTS
SEASON: 41GP – 3G – 6A – 9PTS

Hugo still hasn’t really put up the points but that shouldn’t be concerning. If Hugo is ever going to make an impact on a professional level it will be due to his defensive side of the game. He’s been getting top four time and it’s a good guess he’s probably being used as a shutdown guy due to his size and skating ability. This is fine development for a guys who’s ceiling is a strong bottom pairing defensemen.

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Clay Stevenson, G
SEASON: 27GP – 2.46GAA – .918sv%

Stevenson kind of hit a wall recently. He was .931sv% at one point and is now down to .918sv%, but still that’s quite good for a rookie. He’s posting strong numbers that will probably rise the more experience he’ll get.

Garin Bjorklund, G
0GP

Bjorklund hasn’t played a game yet this season due to injury. Hopefully he gets some games at some point because he’s just 20 years old and needs to be playing.

AHL

Garret Pilon, C/LW/RW
FEB: 10GP – 1G – 3A – 4PTS
SEASON: 33GP – 7G – 13A – 20PTS

Pilon missed almost two months to injury this season but his lack of production is concerning for sure. At this point he needs to be close to a point per game type player. We’ll see how he ends the season and goes into the playoffs.

Beck Malenstyn, LW/RW
FEB: 10GP – 2G – 0A – 2PTS
SEASON: 24GP – 5G – 1A – 6PTS

Malenstyn is doing his usual thing, playing in the Bears bottom six causing a ruckus with his speed and physicality, and using his hard shot when he gets a chance. He doesn’t produce a ton but that’s not his calling card.

Bobby Nardella, LHD
FEB: 10GP – 1G – 2A – 3PTS
SEASON: 43GP – 4G – 15A – 19PTS

Nardella, like Pilon, just hasn’t been living up to what they’ve shown before. Like Pilon, with his skill, Nardella should be close to a point per game player but hasn’t been there just yet. We’ll see how he ends the season.

Hendrix Lapierre, C
FEB: 8GP – 0G – 3A – 3PTS
SEASON: 49GP – 10G – 14A – 24PTS

After getting off to a great start to the season, Lapierre has really slowed down, even getting healthy scratched a couple games lately. It probably has to do more with his linemates (third line) and TOI (PP2 time) than anything. He was thriving when he had a legit shooter on his wing, like Frank. Hopefully Bears start to pair him with high end shooters to take advantage of his playmaking.

Riley Sutter, C/RW
FEB: 10GP – 2G – 1A – 3PTS
SEASON: 49GP – 4G – 5A – 9PTS

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Sutter probably won’t be much of a NHL player, more of a tweener. If he wants to prove he’s more he needs to stay healthy and start producing, which won’t be easy since he mainly plays on the fourth line with the Bears. But he still enamore the Bears with his hard work and willing to do anything to win with a big hit or shot block.

Lucas Johansen, LHD
FEB: 8GP – 0G – 2A – 2PTS
SEASON: 24GP – 1G – 3A – 4PTS

Thankfully, Johansen has been mostly healthy this season but he isn’t being as productive as he should be. It’s not the end of the world, because he’s more of an offensive guy than defensive, but he’s about to score vastly less than he did last season. I think he’s done with the AHL. It’s time for him to sink or swim in the NHL.

Vincent Iorio, RHD
FEB: 10GP – 0G – 3A – 3PTS
SEASON: 50GP – 2G – 15A – 17PTS

Iorio continues to have a strong start to his professional career. He looks more and more NHL ready every game he plays. He’s only going to get better the more he plays. I could even see Iorio getting a NHL game by the end of the season.

Henrik Rybinski, C/RW
FEB: 6GP – 1G – 0A – 1PTS
SEASON: 34GP – 3G – 7A – 10PTS

Rybinksi is known more for his skill but he has adapted to getting bottom six time and has turned into a strong defensive forward that works his ass off in the corner and hard hits. This is certainly a good development for him but they also need to keep developing his offensive skills, because he has above average playmaking skill. This year is fine as a year to get him used to the AHL, but starting next year he needs to be in a position to show off his offensive toolkit.

Kody Clark, RW
0GP
Clark has been injured since the preseason. It might be time to give up all hope on him. He can’t seem to stay healthy and when he is he isn’t producing like a second round pick.

Hunter Shepard, G
SEASON: 22GP – 2.17GAA – .916sv%

Shephard had another below average month for him but is still putting up strong numbers as a AHL rookie. His GAA still leads the league and his sv% is ninth. He needs to keep working at it and grinding it out.

Zach Fucale, G
SEASON: 28GP – 2.58GAA – .898sv%

Fucale just isn’t having a great year and with the NHL duo playing so strong and Shephard taking the number one spot in Hershey, Fucale will need to really kill to keep his NHL hopes alive.

NHL

Alexander Alexeyev, LHD
FEB: 0GP
SEASON: 12GP – 0G – 2A – 2PTS

Alexeyev didn’t get any playing time in February, as the coaching staff opted for veterans to try and keep the team afloat – but with some guys ahead of him moving out due to trades, we should see him in the lineup a little more to end the season.