Jakub Vrana
Jakub Vrana has heated up with six goals in his last seven games. He added another on Thursday night to bring his total to 21 on the season.
Vrana’s goal came in the third period when he drove to the net and banged home a rebound off a pass that wound up becoming an unassisted goal.
https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1217994713610866693
There’s already conversation starting that Vrana has the potential to be a 40-goal scorer. He can certainly reach it if he keeps up his momentum. The game notes indicate that he’s on pace for at least 36 goals and that would be the most by a Caps player other than Alex Ovechkin since T.J. Oshie’s 33-goal season in 2016-17. That’s 0.44 goals per game.
20 of Vrana’s goals came at even strength which is tied with David Pastrnak for the third-most in the NHL at 5-on-5. Vrana has scored a combined two power play goals over the last two seasons and he’s the only player in the NHL to have 43 goals at even strength over the last two years.
Could this mean Vrana might get a promotion from coach Todd Reirden to move from the second line to the first line sometime soon? We can’t wait to see.