Hendrix Lapierre is someone to keep an eye on in farm system

After Connor McMichael graduated to the NHL, the new number one prospect of the Washington Capitals is easily Hendrix Lapierre. We got a small sample size in the form of six games of NHL experience and saw him score his first NHL goal.

After that brief time there, Lapierre is determined to make the opening night roster once again this season. The 2020 first rounder who the Caps traded up for came into town early to participate in the team’s informal skates.

He could very well make the opening night roster and stick around in the NHL but the Caps are mostly good on center depth even in the absence of Nicklas Backstrom.

In addition to McMichael, the Caps also have Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dylan Strome, Lars Eller and Nic Dowd up the middle. So it’s highly likely he’ll begin the season or play the bulk of the season with the Hershey Bears.

McMichael did pretty good during his brief time with the Bears. It won’t necessarily be a bad thing for Lapierre beginning the season with the Capitals American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate.

Lapierre shined during the team’s rookie camp and outplayed young bucks around his age. He could play top six minutes on the Bears and help out with their special teams on the power play. And those Hershey fans will welcome him with open arms.

Assistant general manager Chris Patrick told Tarik El-Bashir of The Athletic (subscription required):

“He’s going into camp on a mission to make the Caps, and that’s the mindset you want your top prospects to have. We’ll just have see how things play out through camp and the beginning of the season. I feel like, as an organization, we’ve done a good job of putting our young players in the right situation for their development, and that’s what will ultimately guide our decision with him. Whatever situation he gets put in, we’ll have to ask ourselves, ‘Is this the best situation for his development now?’ because he looks like he’s going to be a very important player for us in the future so we want to make sure we bring him along the right way. That question will get answered in training camp.”

Lapierre will be an important part of the Capitals future. There will come a time when the core hangs up their skates and he has the potential to be a new face of the franchise and maybe quite possibly speed up the rebuild.