Washington Capitals: Making the Case for Hendrix Lapierre to Start Over Connor McMichael

Hendrix Lapierre has opened eyes in his very brief NHL career. The Washington Capitals‘ 2020 first-round draft selection is off to a hot start in the preseason and with the health of Nicklas Backstrom in-question, Lapierre has forced his name into the conversation as to who will replace the star Swedish center if he isn’t ready to go on opening night.

Backstrom is currently rehabbing a nagging hip injury and is listed as week-to-week by the team and with opening night less than two weeks away, there is a distinct chance that the Capitals will be without him to begin the 2021-2022 season. Backstrom says that his hip is feeling much better than it did at the end of last season but stressed that he wants to be cautious. 

“It’s getting better and better,” Backstrom explained. “We’re not rushing it here, we’re looking at it long term, not short term to make sure it’s ready before I start skating. It’s just been beaten up, was a good time now to really be patient with it and make sure I feel good before I step on the ice. Progress is going good, feeling better. Hopefully, I can be on the ice soon.”

Fans have been clamoring for an extended look at Connor McMichael at the NHL level. He is widely regarded as the organization’s top prospect. With Backstrom sidelined, it appears to be a perfect opportunity for that to happen. McMichael has dominated at every level he’s played and is coming off a productive year with the Hershey Bears. McMichael led the team in points, scoring 14 goals and adding 13 assists in 33 games. 

Connor McMichael, to his credit, is playing well this preseason but then there’s Hendrix Lapierre. The 19-year-old has played phenomenally well in his first two preseason games, registering four assists and playing with a certain swagger that you can’t quantify. Lapierre, also a first round selection, with huge upside does not have the professional experience that McMichael has but sometimes it’s best to ride the hot hand and right now, the hot hand is Hendrix Lapierre.

The recipient of the above beautiful pass was TJ Oshie who, to nobody’s surprise after this play, had a glowing review of Lapierre.

“He skated really well, he moved the puck really well,” Oshie said of Lapierre. “I thought for the most part we weren’t really in our own end and a lot of that was because of his skating through the middle, making great plays. He actually had two super nice plays to me in the middle and I didn’t quite read them fast enough. I had to get used to his hockey IQ, which seems pretty high. I thought he did a great job.”

The team’s head coach Peter Laviolette, expressed confidence in the young center too after his second preseason game.

“I thought he was better tonight than he was last game,” Peter Laviolette said. “[And] he was good last game. I thought he did a better job competing on pucks. I thought he did a better job in the faceoff circle. You could notice his speed with the puck and how he attacked the game, able to generate some offense. Another good showing.”

What’s most telling in Laviolette’s quote is the bit about the improvement in the faceoff circle. In the first preseason game, Lapierre was downright awful, losing 9 of 11 draws. He worked on faceoffs after that performance with assistant coach Blaine Forsythe and the very next game, Lapierre won 10 of 14 draws.

With just three preseason games left before the puck drops on the season, for real, it’ll be an interesting storyline to see if Lapierre can burst onto the scene and make the Washington Capitals. The Canadian was asked about making the team and had this to say.

“It’s tough to say,” Lapierre said when asked about making the team. “My job as a hockey player is to be the best player I can be each and every day and I feel like right now I’m doing a good job at that. My goal when I came to training camp was to make that roster and I think I just have to keep playing and good things will happen. But definitely my goal, yeah.”

Both McMichael and Lapierre have top-six potential and both need significant playing time this season to develop. If Backstrom misses less than 10-games and is not placed on long-term injured reserve the Capitals should give Hendrix Lapierre the chance to play those games. Playing in more than 10 NHL games for Lapierre would automatically cause his entry-level contract to begin and the Capitals would lose a year of team control over him.

Lapierre is further away from being an everyday NHL starter than McMichael is and the team shouldn’t lose a year of control over him for a few games in October. At the end of the day, it boils down to the fact that both Hendrix Lapierre and Connor McMichael would make excellent fill-ins for Backstrom and the deciding factor is that Lapierre is finding himself on the scoresheet. Connor McMichael isn’t. That isn’t a knock on McMichael, but sometimes in this league, players get hot and they can do no wrong. So far, it appears that Hendrix Lapierre is in the midst of one of those stretches and if it continues throughout the rest of the preseason, then Peter Laviolette ought to make sure his team is along for the ride.