ARLINGTON, VA — With the 2025 NHL Draft right around the corner, the Capitals could soon make their first moves of the offseason. Washington is set to make the 27th overall selection in the first round and own five total picks in the first five rounds.
The Capitals have kept their first round pick in each of the last three drafts, even despite an aggressive offseason in 2024 that saw them add seven players to the organization. Still, that doesn’t mean they’re not open to making a deal.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, assistant general manager Ross Mahoney left the door open for a potential move, though he admitted his focus on amateur players biased him towards the draft.
“What are you doing to me? I’ve been working all these months trying to –” he joked when asked if the Capitals would consider trading their first-round pick. “Yeah, there’s always a chance that a pick could get moved. When you’re on the amateur side, you love to make picks. That’s your job. That’s what you do as a group. But if you’re making a trade to acquire an asset that you think is going to 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.
“And we’ve had years where we’ve had three first-round picks and we’ve had years where we’ve had no first-round picks. So to answer that question right now, yeah, it depends what other teams throw at us, I guess, in the next three or four days, to see whether you’re moving that pick or not. But for me, I would like to have those picks.”
After turning over a third of the roster last summer, the Capitals are likely to make fewer, smaller moves this offseason, but will still look to make some improvements.
“We had some big spots to fill last year, our goals for roster spots,” president of hockey operations Brian MacLellan said in May. “This year, there’s fewer holes. We’ve had some growth in young players. We have some players that are young and are coming up to make the next jump, so you’ve got to be cognizant of leaving room for improvement, leaving room for guys to come in and, hopefully, still add a piece or two. It’s not going to be the same as last year.”
General manager Chris Patrick, like Mahoney, said last month that the team would consider trading the pick.
“Yeah, I think you have to be open to all options…we’ll try to be creative with what we can do,” he said in his season-ending press conference.
The Capitals do not have a pick in the top 20 for the first time since 2021, but Mahoney still sees plenty of potential in the players Washington could draft at 27th.
“I think the first round, actually, is going to be pretty good,” he said Monday.
Mahoney was impressed when talking to prospects at the combine, calling this year’s draft class ‘probably the best group of kids we’ve ever done, as far as the interviews.” In particular, he highlighted players’ realistic expectations for their careers and how they needed to develop.
“Sometimes you’re asking those interviews, ‘When do you think you’ll be able to play in the NHL?’ And it’s, ‘Oh, next year,’ and you’re like, ‘Oh, next year?” Depending on who you are, we might need a little more reality here,” he said. “But a lot of the kids were, “I think I’ve got to go back and play college for a couple years or junior for a couple years. And then I might need a year or two in the American League.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, really good self evaluation.’ It seemed a lot better this year, as far as that goes.”
While Washington’s regular-season success pushed them down in the draft order, they also have an early second-round pick — acquiring Boston’s 37th overall selection in a 2023 trade for Dmitry Orlov and Garnet Hathaway — that could offer them more flexibility.
The Caps will have three more days to weigh their options before the draft kicks off on Friday night at 7pm.
