Redrafting the 2021 Washington Capitals NHL Draft

The 2021 NHL Draft was a weird one for the Washington Capitals as they traded away their first round pick to the Detroit Red Wings. For this exercise, I’m going to do a complete redraft starting with their second round pick at 55 overall.

But first let’s look at who the Caps drafted. First they selected Vincent Iorio in the second round with their 55th overall pick. Then they selected Brent Johnson (no relation to the former goalie/NBC Sports Washington analyst) with their third round pick at 80th overall.

Then they selected Joaquim Lemay with the 119th overall pick in the fourth round. Then Haakon Hanelt in the fifth round at 151st overall. In the sixth round they had two picks: Dru Krebs with the 176th overall pick and Chase Clark at 183rd overall.

Now let’s break down pick by pick with who I would’ve drafted:

55th: Aleksandr Kisakov – Kisakov is a left winger that was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres. The Caps always select defenseman in the draft (with the exception of 2019 first rounder Connor McMichael) and he’s from Russia. In the MHL with MHL Dynamo Moskva last season, he scored 26 goals and 30 assists for 56 points.

80th: Justin Ertel – Ertel was taken a previous pick prior by the Dallas Stars but if he fell into Washington’s lap the team could’ve selected the left winger. He had just finished his first season with Cornell University scoring nine points in 23 games with a goal and eight assists.

119th: Ethan Cardwell – Cardwell is another forward (see where I’m going here) who was selected at 121st overall by the San Jose Sharks. He spent last season with the Barrie Colds of the OHL as an alternate captain and had 23 goals and 35 assists for 58 points in the regular season and four goals in six playoff games.

151st: Kirill Gerasimyuk – Okay we’re going to go with a goalie with this one. Gerasimyuk was drafted by the Florida Panthers and he’s also from Russia. He spit time with two teams in the MHL last season first with Morozova and then St. Petersburg. With St. Petersburg he was a perfect 16-0-1 with a .932 save percentage and 1.79 goals against average in the regular season.

176th: Theo Jacobsson – If we had a crystal ball last year and knew Nicklas Backstrom would miss significant time now, might as well stock on centers. Jacobsson got drafted by the San Jose Sharks. Last season he split time in the J20 and Hockey Allsvenskia. With MoDo Hockey J20 he recorded 18 goals and 14 assists for 32 points.

183rd: Nikita Novikov – We’ll end this redraft with a defenseman since we’re pretty stocked on forwards in this exercise. Novikov got drafted by the Sabres and is another Russian. He also got drafted by the Sabres. EPR Rinkside said “On defense, he uses his raw size to take up a lot of space, block lanes, and get his stick in wherever he can.”

And with that there’s our 2021 redraft. That was kind of fun and I wonder if we should do this again for 2020 or 2019. Let us know.