Washington Capitals: Connor McMichael and Shane Gersich shine in summer hockey action

Hockey doesn’t officially start until mid-September for training camp but for some Washington Capitals players, there’s no offseason.

While some Washington Capitals players are doing individual sets of conditioning, others are taking part in summer league action or tournaments. Connor McMichael and Shane Gersich, two future forwards currently in the system, showed the potential they could bring to an NHL rink.

McMichael, a Capitals first rounder from this year’s draft at 25th overall, was added to the roster of Canada’s National Junior Team Sport Chek Summer Development Camp from the end of July through the beginning of the month.

Recording 36 goals and 36 assists with the London Knights a season ago, McMichael looks for an even bigger season playing under the guidance of Dale Hunter. In the playoffs, McMichael scored two goals and three assists in 11 games.

McMichael also previously suited up for the Canada White U17 team in the 2017 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, registering one goal and three assists. He headed to Plymouth, Michigan and was one of four Canadien players to score two or more goals in the tournament.

Both goals came on the power play and McMichael finished with eight shots on goal and a -1 in the two games.

McMichael hopes to have an impact for Team Canada this winter in the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship. The annual winter tournament takes place from Dec. 26-Jan. 5 in Trinec and Ostrava in the Czech Republic.

Shane Gersich has been known for his speed as well as a few highlight-reel goals and on Wednesday night, the 2014 fifth rounder took a page out of Nikita Kucherov’s playbook with the signature no-move.

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The way the no move works is the skater comes toward the net on the breakaway and fakes a deke sneakingly sliding a puck right through the five-hole. Gersich had two goals on the night for Tradition in Da Beauty League action. Tradition fell 11-8 to RBC with Travis Boyd suiting up opposite Gersich. Boyd finished with a goal of his own on the night.

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Gersich has three goals and an assist in five games with Tradition. He will head into his second season with the Hershey Bears. Last season Gersich finished with eight goals and 16 assists (24 points) in 66 games. The Capitals signed him to a one-year, two-way extension and will become a RFA next summer.

Gersich and McMichael are both at different stages in their development but both are important to the Capitals future.