Washington Capitals Draft Grades: Chase Clark
We are now at our final grade from the 2021 Washington Capitals draft. Up next is Washington’s final selection, goaltender Chase Clark. In case you missed it, we also graded the selections of Vincent Iorio, Brent Johnson, Joaquim Lemay, Dru Krebs, and Haakon Hanelt.
Clark was their sixth selection, taken in the sixth round at 183rd overall. He stands at six foot six and weighs 202 pounds and is a native of Williamsville, New York. Clark catches right handed and sees himself as a hybrid butterfly goaltender. Mike Vogel of WashingtonCaps.com noted that his best attributes are his size, athleticism, and puck playing ability with a high compete level and hockey IQ.
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Clark reads the plays well and uses his six foot six size to his advantage. He compared his game to Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Clark played for the New Jersey Hitmen of the USPHL last season, appearing in 22 games with an 18-2-1 record, a 1.92 goals against average and a .935 save percentage.
His play was so good he even earned playing time with the Tri City Storm of the USHL. Despite losing all three of his starts, Capitals scouts loved what they saw from the prospect. Assistant general manager Ross Mahoney told the media after the draft via Andrew Gillis of NBC Sports Washington:
"“Really interesting guy, he was playing in New Jersey, the Hitmen, and we had video from him there. But then we saw him play also in the USHL and he was really impressive for a big, 6-foot-6, 200-pound goalie. Pretty controlled, pretty athletic, and that’s not easy at that height, that age and that position.”"
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Grade A+: At the time of this selection I was still mourning the loss of Vitek Vanecek to the Seattle Kraken. I was hoping the Caps would use one of their six picks to select a goaltender of the future. Clark is a steal at number six with his size and hockey knowledge and GMBM knocked it out of the park. With Vanecek back, now the Caps are stocked on goalies now and into the future.