ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals have a plan in place when it comes to how they're approaching the 2025 NHL Draft.
Assistant general manager Ross Mahoney spoke on the upcoming draft and the Capitals' plans for the coming days, and said he sees a lot of potential for strong picks.
"There's some quality players are that are going to get drafted earlier in the draft. I think the top end's fairly good, I think the first round actually is going to be pretty good."
The Capitals own the 27th overall pick and four other selections in this year's draft. Washington has built an impressive prospect pool over the last few years with the likes of Andrew Cristall, Ilya Protas, Cole Hutson and more joining the mix, and going into this year, continues to look at the best players available rather than going by position.
"If you went by position, you run that risk of saying, 'Well, let's take a defenseman this year, we're a little light on defense' and then a forward goes and ends up being a much better player, you're probably kicking yourself after for not doing that," Mahoney explained, adding, "We've always tried to stick with taking the best player available, unless you're splitting hairs and we really thought there was a strong year that year for (a certain position)."
At the same time, Washington is remaining open to the possibility of trading away its first-round pick to acquire an asset that could help the team now.
“There’s always a chance that a pick could get moved,” Mahoney said, adding, “You live to make picks, that’s your job,. But if you’re making a trade to acquire an asset that you think is going improve your team and put you over the hump and give you a chance to win a Cup, then by all means, you go with that.”
Mahoney would prefer to keep that pick, and said when it comes down to it, what's stood out most to him about this year's class was the "high-end character" the prospects displayed.
"It was probably the best group of kids we've ever (seen) as far as the interviews. I think there's a lot of really high-end character kids in this year's draft," Mahoney said. "it was amazing actually how their self-evaluations were really good... it seemed a lot better this year as far as that goes."