3 Washington Capitals Poised to Have a Breakout Campaign in 2013-14

In every NHL season, for every NHL team, there are a handful of players who have the proverbial breakout season. In 2013-14, the Washington Capitals will be no exception.

But which player or players will be the one(s) to break through? Do the Caps have a breakout star in the making and, if so, how will he impact the team?

After spending the past couple of weeks looking at the Caps' roster and forecasting how the top stars of the team might fare in 2013-14, I feel as though I have a good idea of which players might be on the cusp of something special.

The Caps are a team loaded with some truly exceptional players on offense and defense. The team also boasts several lesser-known role players who are all very good players in their own right.

Then there are players somewhere in between. They are not quite stars but they are more than role players. It is from this tier of players that the Caps next breakout star is likely to emerge.

So which Caps players are ready to break through in 2013-14?

Here are three players I think are poised to have a breakout campaign in 2013-14.

Tom Wilson

One of the smartest moves the Washington Capitals made during their playoff series with the New York Rangers was when they decided to let Tom Wilson play.

As many will recall, Wilson was taken with the No. 16 overall pick in the 2012 NHL draft by the Caps. Most figured it would be a couple of years before we actually saw Wilson skate with the Caps. Instead, when the team needed a lift after Martin Erat was injured in Game 4, the Caps turned to the 19-year-old right winger.

Wilson played in three games against the Rangers and one would never know that those were his first three NHL games ever. He looked poised. He looked confident. Most important though—he looked like he belonged.

In the three games he played, Wilson did not score a goal, but that was OK. It was how he played that mattered. In the Game 7 debacle Wilson might have played his best game. In fact, he may have been the best player on the ice wearing a red jersey.

It would be thoroughly disappointing if Wilson was sent back down to the minors to play in  Hershey or if he went back to playing with the Plymouth Whalers of the OHL. He may only be 19, but there is little left for Wilson to do or prove at a lower level.

In the 2011-12 season with the Whalers, Wilson notched nine goals and 18 assists in 49 games. In the playoffs, though, Wilson really stepped up his game with seven goals and six assists in 13 games. Wilson also had a very solid plus-10 rating during the playoffs.

In the 2012-13 season with the Whalers, Wilson was even better. Wilson scored 23 goals, had 35 assists and a plus-36 rating in just 48 games. He was again stellar in the playoffs with nine goals, eight assists and a plus-eight rating.

Then, for an encore, he got to play in the NHL playoffs.

This young man has star written all over him. At 6'4" and 210 pounds, Wilson has great size and strength for a 19-year-old—and he will only get bigger, faster and stronger.

And Wilson absolutely knows how to use his size to his advantage. He is always willing to lay a punishing check on an opponent, and he is more than willing to drop the gloves if need be.

He cycles the puck well and has an active stick.

Wilson is also a very effective leader and showed this during his stint with the Whalers. Wilson, despite his own young age, will be someone the Caps can look to to lead them when the need arises.

In many ways, Wilson is very similar to another very young phenom who calls the D.C. market home—Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals.

Harper also was called up to the big club earlier than expected and he took advantage of the situation to full effect. Now, the thought of sending Harper back down to the minors is unthinkable.

Look for Wilson to have similar success with the Capitals in 2013-14.

Mathieu Perreault

Mathieu Perreault is another player who looks ready to really break through for the Caps in 2013-14.

The 25-year-old third line center has, up to now, not really shown that he is on the verge of a breakout sort of season—at least statistically.

Perreault has not even played in the equivalent of two full NHL seasons yet as he has only played in 159 regular season games. His best season was the 2011-12 campaign where he played in 64 games, had 16 goals and 14 assists.

In the lockout-shortened 2013 season, Perreault played in 39 games with six goals and 11 assists. At that rate, he would have been on pace for 10 goals and 19 assists, numbers quite comparable to the ones he put up in 2011-12.

So what makes me think Perreault is a player who can break through for the Caps in 2013-14? I feel this way because as I watched the Caps make their run to the playoffs this past season, I was genuinely impressed by the play of Perreault.

I saw a young man with radically improving vision and skill. On April 13, I watched Perreault pick apart the Tampa Bay Lightning. First he set up Jason Chimera for a beautiful goal. Then he exercised great patience as he set up Eric Fehr for another goal.

I saw a player develop a real nose for the net and someone who started to understand just how to score goals in the NHL.

This was on display in the Caps 4-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets on April 24, where Perreault actually scored the Southeast division winning goal. On that play, Perreault showed what hard work and perseverance can do as he stuck with the play and scored a real grinding type of goal.

Another example of this was Perreault's goal in Game 4 of the series against the New York Rangers when he went hard to the net and whacked home a goal off of a rebound of a Joel Ward shot.

Speaking of the playoffs, Perreault was actually one of the Caps' best players in that series. Perreault was tied with Ward for the team lead in assists with three and he was tied for the team lead in points with four. He was also tied for the team lead with Karl Alzner as far as efficiency rating was concerned with a plus-three.

Perreault's performance down the stretch—and especially against the Rangers—leads me to believe that he is a player on the verge of much bigger and better things.

If I am right, then Perreault's fifth season in the NHL should be a rather special one.

Marcus Johansson

Marcus Johansson is a player that can run very hot or very cold.

Look back at the 2013 season and this becomes apparent. Through the first 14 games of the 2013 season, MoJo struggled mightily. He had three goals, two assists and a minus-seven rating. He even missed about a month's worth of action with an injury.

But over the final 20 games of the season Johansson was placed predominantly on the Caps' top line with Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. MoJo's production soared as did his numbers.

Over those final 20 games, MoJo had another three goals, added 14 assists and had a plus-10 rating. He scored what would end up being the game-winning goal in Game 1 of the series against the New York Rangers.

Could 2013-14 be the year that MoJo busts loose and asserts himself as an up-and-coming star in the NHL?

He absolutely has the potential to do so. He has great speed, he has very good moves, he handles the puck well and he has good instincts. But all that is potential. What makes me think that potential will be realized this season?

As is often the case, it is just a hunch. I watched how Johansson played down the stretch and he really showed me something I was not sure he had.

He seemed faster than other players and he was a better playmaker than I thought he was. He had good vision and, on occasion, showed that he could be a sniper. The fact that he was placed on the top line with Ovechkin and Backstrom tells me that head coach Adam Oates saw something special in the 22-year-old as well.

The big issue with MoJo, however, is he needs to be more confident in his abilities and he just needs to shoot the puck more. This was a problem I noted in the playoffs. MoJo, along with several other members of the Caps, just seemed too reluctant to shoot.

MoJo only had 40 shots on goal this past season. Only Joey Crabb, Aaron Volpatti, Martin Erat and Brooks Laich had fewer shots on goal, among Caps forwards, than Johansson—and Laich only played in nine games, as did Erat (with the Capitals at least).

If MoJo is going to succeed this season, then he needs to shoot the puck more, have more confidence in his skills and relax some.

Whether he remains on the Caps' top line as a winger or whether he resumes his position as a center on either the second, third or fourth lines, Johansson should have many opportunities to prove what he is capable of in 2013-14.

Johansson's career high for goals was 14 in 2011-12. If he plays to his potential, MoJo should easily eclipse that this coming season.