The Washington Capitals have a lengthy offseason ahead of them and yesterday they decided to invest in the future by extending bonafide contract offers to three prospects from the 2021 Draft class.
They extended those offers to goaltender Chase Clark and defensemen Joaquim Lemay and Dru Krebs. Per the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement, a bonafide contract offer is a standard player contract that starts at the beginning of next season and offers at the very least a league minimum salary.
The offer is open to the player for a minimum of 30 days and the purpose of these is to extend the team’s claim to the player’s rights.
Clark was selected in the sixth round from the Tri City Storm of the USHL. He’s a tall goaltender and is committed to attending Quinnipiac University. Last season he split 20 games between the Storm and Muskegon Lumberjacks.
Krebs is the brother of Peyton Krebs of the Buffalo Sabres. He was also taken by the Caps in the sixth round. He spent the past three seasons in Canadian juniors with the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers. He had 19 points in 66 games last season. He also had a -58 but mostly due to being on a bad team. He signed an amateur tryout agreement with the Hershey Bears in April.
Lemay was selected 119th overall in the fourth round. He played at the time for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks of the BCHL. This past season he played in the USHL with the Lincoln Stars as an alternate captain, recording 46 points in 58 games. He is playing at the University of Nebraska Omaha next season.
The odd man out in these bonafide contract offers was Bear Hughes. According to my friend Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic, the fifth rounder did not receive an offer and can now re enter this year’s draft for the opportunity to be selected by another team.