The kids are alright

Just past the quarter pole of the season and the Washington Capitals are not as bad as they were in the Karp league's inaugural season. Obviously there is still time to finish in last place, but the winning percentage appears to show a steady uptick in points earned per game. Last season the Caps finished 31st overall. So far this season the team is ranked 14th. How long they can sustain that kind of ranking is the subject of much speculation in the nations capital city.

Despite the team initially offering Antti Raanta a contract he chose to sign with a different team. At seasons start he was picked up on waivers from his prior team and played surprisingly well. Appearing in 18 games so far with a save percentage above 900. Jaro Halak and Scott Wedgewood have seen spot starts to far with Halak actually have a winning record on the season.

Standouts so far on the season are Tim Stutzle, JG Pageau, Yakov Trenin and Mason Appleton. A closer look at the numbers show Nicolas Roy with 4 PPG to lead the team. Max Jones is also the team leader in GWG. On a team struggling with the plus minus category both Nick Jensen and Rasmus Ristalainen are plus players on the season so far.

The future looks bright despite the relatively dismal state of the Capitals franchise pipeline. Both Connon McMichael and Hendrix Lapierre have seen NHL this season with McMichael playing top 6 minutes. I think he was the clear beneficiary of the Nicklas Backstrom decision to step away from the game, at least for the time being. The Ajax Ontario native has 10 points in 22 games played with Capitals so far in the 23-24 NHL season. Gatineau native Lapierre has a modest 3 assists in the 6 games played so far this season.

After the sell off last year some of the kids in the pipeline are really starting to show signs of progress. Over the next few articles we will discuss the future of Los Capitales. Of note they are all forwards which was part of our strategy from the beginnings of the league. With some luck perhaps 3 of them will become top 6 guys which would be a happy problem to find a space for all of them along with Tim Stutzle.

Danila Yurov

Bradly Nadeau

Calum Ritchie

Danny Nelson

Gleb Trikozov

Ivan Miroshnechenko

Kasper Haltunen

Rasmus Kumpalainen

Ryan Leonard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afam2nIae4o