Three Players The Capitals Should Target At Pick 17

It's one of the best and most exciting times of the year. Draft time. Drafts are always incredibly fun to watch. For fans your team gets a new player for free essentially. You get a new young player that you can keep track of and hopefully that new player will help you achieve a ton of success in the future.

It's also fun to watch young athletes dreams come true. Most of the players drafted into pro sports have spent their entire lives dreaming of this very moment. Heck, a lot of people watching spent much of their lives dreaming of this very moment, only to realize that it won't ever happen. It's an incredibly hard step to reach and these young guys have done it.

This year Washington Capitals fans will have their sights set on pick number 17. Almost smack dab in the middle of the first round. This year that feels like a very tricky spot to be picking.

This year it seems we have tiers to the players who are in this draft. You have your no brainer number one pick, then you have picks 2-5 who will probably be pretty good. Then you have another range of 6-12 or 13 of players that might be good. Then it seems like everybody else.

To say it in a shorter way, this is not the deepest draft we've seen.

Deep draft or not, drafts are always a crapshoot. You can find a star at number 3 overall. That star might be at twenty-three. Or he could be a third rounder, or later. We just never know.

So who should the Capitals target this year at pick number 17?

Before I show you the three players I like the most I would like to point out the obvious. I do not know these prospects well. All I have done is days of reading and watching some videos of people who know a lot more than me on these prospects. I don't have that much information on these guys. I'm not going to be able to reveal much about these players to you. Today I'm only telling you what I like about what I've read about them. We'll be putting plenty of links of articles from people who know more about them, I highly encourage you to check these links out.

With that being said I'm focusing mostly on forwards here. If there is one thing that Capitals may need it might be a future replacement for John Carlson. I doubt the Caps get that at 17. If you want to get that you will probably have to trade up and to get that kind of guy I don't think a trade up is possible. We'll talk about defensemen that the Caps could get later. Today it's forwards.

Up first!

Igor Chernyshov - LW

As long as I have watched hockey there has been "The Russian factor". The fear that you draft a Russian player and that player won't go to the team he was selected to. Instead he will stay home and play in the KHL and later sign in the NHL to whatever team he wants.

It feels like that rarely happens to be honest. What happens more often is American kids getting drafted, going to college and forcing their way out of their team. That's happened plenty, and it's happened twice in the past few months, Cutter Gauthier and Rutger McGroarty being the latest examples. But the "American factor" doesn't sound as catchy does it?

Whether there is a Russian factor or not the Capitals have not feared drafted Russians in the past. For good reason. They have had the best Russian hockey player ever on their team. Why wouldn't any young guy from the same country want to go play with their hero? If you want more connection for Chernyshov, he plays on Dynamo Moscow, the same team Ovechkin once played for.

Chernyshov is already a fairly big guy. At 18-years old he is 6'2 and weighs around 195lbs. Hulking? No. But that is already NHL ready size. If he were to break into the NHL right now you wouldn't have to worry about him like you would say a 5'9" 165lbs player.

The reason I like Chernyshov and why I think he could be a good pick for Washington at 17 is because it sounds like he has a pretty high floor. The people I have heard talk about him says his potential could be a top six player who could score you 30-35 goals a year adding 70-75 points.

These same people say, if that potential is not reached he could or should still be a really solid third line player who is hard to play against. A third line player who may be able to give you 20ish goals and 50+ points. Someone who could also go up in the lineup when injuries arise.

His scouting report on The Hockey Writers says he is "one of the more NHL ready prospects" available at the draft this year. Again, I encourage you to click the link to get better information on the players.

A bigger power forward kind of player. Someone who sounds like he could be difficult to play against. Add him to the lineup with Tom Wilson, in the future with Ryan Leonard. You could be dealing with a pain in the rear on every line or maybe one really difficult line to play against. All with the ability to score.

If there is one player that I have read about that the Capitals could pick at 17 I think this is the guy. Everyone else...well, we'll get to it now.

Michael Hage - C

Hage is a really interesting player to read about. This is a kid who has really had a difficult draft year off the ice and still performed well enough to be a consensus first round pick.

Michael's father passed away last summer. I personally cannot imagine going through the most important year of your life after having suddenly and tragically lost a parent. Yet he did, and he did well.

Hage also had to deal with injury recovery. He tore his labrum in September of 2022. This was his first full season back from that injury.

Through injury and tragedy he was still able to put up 75 points, 33 goals in 54 games for the Chicago Steel of the USHL. A weaker Chicago Steel team some have said. A weaker team potentially being important to mention. Some of the questions some have had about his game may be due to the fact that he is playing on a team with not as much talent.

The questions I have heard is his decision making. Is he possibly trying to do too much? Is he making plays that his team cannot keep up with? Does he make plays or not make plays because his teammates are not there? Things like that.

According to those who know much better, Hage has terrific skating ability, great speed and acceleration, a very good skater. On top of that he has great hockey IQ and plays well in all three zones. He apparently has an unpredictable shot which makes it very hard for goalies to stop.

That could or should be improved though with adding more strength which will likely come in the net few years anyways. He could still improve on the details of his game accorinding to some as well. However, he is committed to joined Michigan, a school that does very well helping players get better at the little things.

Tough to say where a guy like Hage might go. It's very possible that he could be there at 17 for the Capitals. If he is it might be tough to pass on him.