Top Prospect Thomas Hickey Blog

Last season the Washington Capitals showed that they are not far away from seriously contending for a Stanley Cup. With a collection of young explosive scoring forwards such as Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, and Nicklas Backstrom, the Capitals last year scored 272 regular season goals to finish with the third highest total. This spring Washington gained some valuable post- season experience where even though they lost in a tough seven game series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, they still learned what it takes to win.  Scoring isn’t just restricted to the forwards as the Caps also have an explosive blue liner in the maturing Mike Green who finished with 73 points and an impressive +24. Similar to the defending champion Penguins the Capitals are a young team with their core players just now hitting their prime and getting better and better. On the blueline Green is surrounded by lots of veteran leadership of the likes of Tom Poti, Brian Pothier, and John Erskine.

One huge weakness that will hurt the Capitals is that three- time Stanley Cup winner Sergei Fedorov decided to play in the KHL as opposed to re-signing with Washington. Even though Fedorov has carved out a Hall Of Fame career with 483 career goals, his major contribution came in Washington as being a veteran leader to fellow Russian Ovechkin and the rest of the young talent.

A big question mark heading into training camp will be the health of their gritty veteran captain Chris Clark who has been injury prone since scoring 30 goals in 2006/07 season. Last season the 33 year-old suffered an arm injury and later on needed wrist surgery that kept him out. Washington lost quite a bit of toughness up front when their resident policeman Donald Brashear who accumulated 121 penalty minutes in 63 games signed with the New York Rangers as an unrestricted free agent. The big question is who will step up and fill that enforcer roll?

Besides for a legitimate enforcer another weakness or unsettled question is their goaltending. Two years ago Washington signed former Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Jose Theodore who as a starter won 32 games and posted a respectable 2.87 GAA. In the playoffs it was a different story for the 12 year veteran who only played two games and posted a weak .818 save percentage before losing his job to prospect Simeon Varlamov who went 6-0 with 2 shutouts and a 2.53 GAA. The big question is whether or not this 21 year-old is ready to be a starter.