Washington Capitals Draft: Updated depth chart after 2022 NHL Draft

Now that the 2022 NHL Draft is in the books and Development Camp is set to return, let’s take a look at the Washington Capitals depth chart.

We’re going to do this exercise with a couple of ways. First any current unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents will not be in the depth chart. How could they be if we don’t know whether or not they’ll be back with the team?

Second we’re going to split the depth chart into two groups. First the varsity squad (NHLers duh!) and then the JV squad (basically the prospects within the system). We’ll keep Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson on the varsity chart for now.

Varsity

Forwards
Alex Ovechkin
Nicklas Backstrom
Evgeny Kuznetsov
T.J. Oshie
Anthony Mantha
Tom Wilson
Lars Eller
Garnet Hathaway
Nic Dowd
Connor McMichael
Joe Snively
Axel Jonsson Fjallby

Defense
John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov
Nick Jensen
Trevor van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehervary

Goalies
Ilya Samsonov

JV

Forwards
Hendrix Lapierre
Henry Rybinski
Bogdan Trineyev
Kody Clark
Aliaksei Protas
Brett Leason
Riley Sutter
Beck Malenstyn
Garrett Pilon
Michael Sgarbossa
Michael Vecchione

Defense
Alexander Alexeyev
Vincent Iorio
Lucas Johansen
Dylan McIlrath
Bobby Nardella

Goalies
Clay Stevenson
Garin Bjorklund
Zachary Fucale
Hunter Shepard

And as a refresher here are the 2022 Caps draft picks

20: F Ivan Miroshnichenko
37: RHD Ryan Chesley
70: F Alexander Suzdalev
85: F Ludwig Persson
149: C Jake Karabela
181: F Ryan Hofer
213: LHD David Gucciardi

Overall the Caps have a lot of interesting names in the pipeline for that dreadful day when Alex Ovechkin retires. The only silver lining would be higher draft picks in an upcoming rebuild. But we don’t have to worry about that for at least another year or two.

For now we just sit back, relax and enjoy what we have going on right now because it won’t last forever. Yes it’s just one Cup but competing for a Cup every year for the last decade makes for never a dull moment in the game.