Matvei Michkov is the future in recent Capitals mock draft

We are days away from the 2023 NHL Draft Washington Capitals fans and you know what that means. Mock draft time!

Since we are a Capitals blog we are going to focus on just the Caps and all their picks in this year’s draft. Let’s go through a quick rundown.

The Caps will own five picks in this year’s draft. They’ll miss out on two of the seven rounds due to trades.

Of course we all know they have the number eight pick in the first round. They are rumored to trade up, you can read more here. 

So we’re going to do this backwards to create suspense which is the first time we ever did this in a mock draft. We’ll go from the Caps last pick to their first pick.

In addition to the first round the Caps will have picks in round 2, 4, 5, and 7.

7th Round:  David Klee

David Klee is a center from Waterloo of the USHL. They could probably pick him 200th or in the 200 range. For the Waterloo Black Hawks he had three goals and 10 assists for 13 points. He’s expected to attend the University of North Dakota. The previous season for the 16U AAA Colorado Thunderbirds he had 44 goals and 75 assists for 119 in 61 games.

5th Round: Alexander Hellnemo

Alexander Hellnemo is a goaltender for Skelleftea Jr. of the Sweden Jr. league. The Caps are pretty much set on goalies up and down the organization but they tend to take one in the later rounds each year the last few years. This is this year’s new goalie.

For the J20 Nationell’s Skelleftea AIK J20 he went 15-8-0 in the regular season with a .916 save percentage and a 2.32 goals against average. In the playoffs he went 0-2-0 with a .893 save percentage and a 3.03 GAA.

For Skellefteå AIK of the SHL he went 5-3-0 with a 2.39 goals against average and a .895 save percentage. He also was loaned to Vasteras IK of the Hockey Allsvenskan where he went 0-2-0 with a .861 save percentage and a 3.07 GAA.

On the international stage he represented Sweden in the International Jr. on their U19 team where he went 1-1-0 with a 2.02 goals against average and a .871 save percentage.

4th Round: Timur Mukhanov

Timur Mukhanov is a left winger from Omsk Jr. of the Russia Jr. league. For Omskie Krylia of the VHL he had four goals and four assists for eight points in 31 games.

For Omskie Yastreby of the MHL he had eight goals and nine assists for 17 points in 15 games in the regular season. In the MHL playoffs he had one goal in nine games.

He is expected to play in the KHL this upcoming season with the Severstal Cherepovets.

1st Round: Matvei Michkov

Matvei Michkov is the perfect match for the Capitals and makes the most sense and whether it happens at the eighth pick or not he will be walking that stage putting on the red Caps jersey and draft hat.

The question is does it happen at eighth or do the Caps trade up to leapfrog the Philadelphia Flyers at number 7 who are also interested in the Russian right wing.

Corey Pronman of The Athletic (subscription required) also has the Caps taking him in the first round on his mock draft. I think the Caps move to sixth or fifth to take him.

Here’s what Pronman said:

The often-asked question in the league is whether this is Michkov’s floor. Some are convinced there is no way he gets by Washington. Some in the league are less sold he’s their guy. I can easily see one of the U.S. program kids or Nate Danielson otherwise. If Dvorsky doesn’t go to Arizona I don’t see him getting by Washington at No. 8.

That’s our mock draft but we’ll have lots more draft content for the next week so keep it locked here.