Elite Prospects 2025 NHL Prospect Pool Rankings: No. 8-ranked Washington Capitals

Quietly, the Washington Capitals are one of the best drafting and developing teams in the NHL. 

They’ve had one top-15 pick since 2015 – Ryan Leonard in 2023 – yet always end up above many teams with far more draft capital in this series. 

This year, they moved up five spots despite top prospects technically graduating Ivan Miroshnichenko by our Calder eligibility requirement. 

How do they do it? Picking skill with standout elements, and then developing players at a lightning-fast rate. They have perhaps the prospect sphere’s two biggest risers this past season, Cole Hutson and Ilya Protas, and that’s not to mention their plethora of high scorers, translatable depth forwards, potential shutdown defencemen – and one of the sport’s elite prospects. 

Perpetually one of the favourite NHL prospects