Home / News / Chase Priskie named Hobey Baker Award finalist amid speculation on his future with Capitals

Chase Priskie named Hobey Baker Award finalist amid speculation on his future with Capitals

By Julia Karron

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March 21, 2019 12:54 pm

For the Quinnipiac Bobcats, two losses to Brown in the ECAC tournament quarterfinals have them awaiting their opponent in the NCAA tournament.

But there might be hardware for captain Chase Priskie to pick up as he closes out his senior season.

The 2016 sixth-round Caps prospect — another steal by the Capitals’ scouting staff — was named a Top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey, Wednesday.

Amid Priskie’s best season as a Bobcat, he was name-dropped in Elliotte Friedman’s 31 Thoughts, and his future with the Caps remains unclear.

From 31 Thoughts:

Washington scored one for local hockey this week by signing NCAA Yale’s Joe Snively as a free agent. From Virginia, he told a great story about meeting Alexander Ovechkin years ago at the dentist and getting his gloves signed. In 2016, the Capitals drafted Quinnipiac defender Chase Priskie, who had 39 points in 34 games. He’s creeping closer to free agency and will have a choice to make. He’s talented.

Priskie’s record at Quinnipiac speaks for itself. He was named all-ECAC for the fourth straight year, and lead all defensemen with 17 goals. Priskie also leads all active defensemen for career goals, power play goals, and points.

“The situation with Priskie’s interesting,” Bob McKenzie said during Wednesday night’s broadcast of the Caps-Lightning game. “Everybody’s toeing the party line right now. From the players’ perspective, he’s only focused on one thing, NCAA playoffs. His family advisors are taking care of the business part of it and they said ‘it will take care of itself down the road.'”

The Capitals have until August 15 to sign their 2016 sixth-round pick entry-level deal, similar to what they did recently with Joe Snively of Yale. “As soon as his season is over, if [Priskie] wants to sign with the Washington Capitals, he can,” McKenzie said. “He’s their property. But only until August 15.”

Three years ago, the Capitals lost prospect Thomas DiPauli to the Pittsburgh Penguins after the Notre Dame alum and 2012 fourth-round pick waited until after the August 15 deadline to become an unrestricted free agent.

“As for the Washington Capitals, they like to believe there’s no reason to believe why the kid won’t sign with them,” McKenzie added. “But, we’ve seen this before with players who get to their senior year and they can wait a couple of months and become a free agent. So it’s simply a situation to monitor for now.”

Headline photo: @QU_MIH

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