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With the Washington Capitals trading away three of their picks on draft day, much of the action was over by 7PM. But just because you put on Sunday Night Baseball and started drinking some wine coolers, doesn’t mean the draft didn’t keep going. Let’s take a look at who the Caps picked up in the latter rounds of 2013.
By 10 years ago
Photo credit: Marissa Baecker/Shoot the Breeze Photography
With the 53rd overall pick, the Capitals selected Madison Bowey from the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets. Over the last decade, the Rockets have produced several high-quality NHL defensemen including Shea Weber, Duncan Keith, and Luke Schenn.
Bowey is a Winnipeg native who earned a lot of praise from scouts for his skating. His footwork and speed allow him to always be at the right place at the right time while also keeping up with fast forwards and jumping up on rushes. HockeyProspect.com ranked him as high as 15th in their final rankings.
“I like to play a physical game and also use my speed to my advantage,” Bowey told reporters after being drafted. “I think I can bring that to the Caps. They are a great, great offensive team and also strong enough defensively so I’ll think fit in great in that mold.”
By 10 years ago
Photo credit: Washington Capitals Instagram
“Since I was little kid I always watch Capitals play,” André Burakovsky send when asked about his new team, minutes after Washington selected him 23rd overall in the 2013 NHL Draft. “I really like the club. I really like Backstrom, Ovechkin, the other players. I watched Washington and I’m really glad to represent them.”
Well, as soon as Burakovsky got done talking the media, he got a call from one those players he really likes. The 18-year-old Swede beams.
Below, check out the short video from CSN Washington.
Photo credit: Malmo Redhawks
Another year, another European. For the seventh time since 2002, Washington Capitals selected either Swede or Russian with their first pick in the NHL draft. This year, it was André Burakovsky, a crafty forward from the land of Ikea and Volvos.
So who is this guy?
By 10 years ago
After a wild first round, the Washington Capitals finally came on the clock in the 5 pm hour. With the 23rd pick in the draft the Caps selected André Burakovsky, a left winger from Sweden. He’s reportedly a flashy playmaker, who’s played the last two years for Malmö of the HockeyAllsvenskan, the same Swedish league Filip Forsberg played in. Burakovsky is the son of Swedish coach and former NHler Robert Burakovsky. Though he was born in Austria, André grew up in Sweden.
By Chris Gordon 10 years ago
The Washington Capitals have been reluctant to move their first round picks in recent years. Sometimes they’ve entered the draft with more than one first round pick: last year and 2004, when the Caps had three: Alex Ovechkin, Jeff Schultz, and Mike Green. In most cases, holding on to those picks is the smart move – 80% of players picked in the first round between 2000 and 2011 have played at least one NHL game. For comparison’s sake, only 49% of the second round picks ever suit up in the NHL. The only time the Caps haven’t had a first round pick recently was in 2011, when they traded away the 26th pick to cap-saddled Chicago in exchange for Troy Brouwer.
“We didn’t like where the [2011 Draft] was going and we had an opportunity to use our pick to get Brouwer, and it turned out to be a heck of a move for us,” Capitals GM George McPhee said Monday at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “He’s a guy we all liked.” He also added that the trade was an example of a “good working relationship” between the team’s pro and amateur scouts.
This year, it might be smart for the Capitals to trade away the 23rd pick.
By 10 years ago
Photo credit: USA NTDP
Hudson Fasching, a prospect projected to be selected in the second round of the NHL draft, has a remarkable family. His two younger siblings, Cooper and Mallory, have a rare genetic condition called mitochondrial disorder; their brains and muscles don’t receive the energy they need to operate properly.
“I just am very grateful for what I have,” Fasching told NHL.com in April. “I feel like I’m very lucky. It was a statistical thing, a one-in-four chance that they would contract the disease or the genes ended up the way they have. I’m just really lucky that I have all the gifts I’ve been given as a person, and I work that much harder every day to work for them because they can’t do that.”
By 10 years ago
Steffen and Markus Soberg during the Division 1 Group A World Juniors (Photo credit: IIHF).
In Norway, NHLers are few and far between. Unlike neighboring Denmark and Germany (let alone Sweden), Norway hasn’t established itself as a producer of elite hockey talent. As of right now, only 18 Norwegians have been selected in the NHL Entry Draft, only seven have played in an NHL game, and just one is currently a part of a big-league roster: the Rangers’ Mats Zuccarello.
Hockey fans from Norway sure hope some of their fellow countrymen will be selected in the upcoming draft and one of the names they’re waiting to be called in Newark in late June will sound familiar for the Caps fans: Markus Soberg.
By 10 years ago
