{"id":721205,"date":"2026-06-23T13:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721205\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T13:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T13:15:13","slug":"assistant-gm-ross-mahoney-says-capitals-may-target-bigger-defenseman-and-bigger-center-with-first-round-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/721205\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistant GM Ross Mahoney says Capitals may target \u2018bigger defenseman and bigger center\u2019 with first-round picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals<\/a> are set to pick twice in the first round of the NHL Draft for the first time in over a decade.<\/p>\n

In addition to their own pick, Washington acquired the Anaheim Ducks\u2019 first-rounder<\/a> as part of the John Carlson<\/a> trade this spring, now holding both the 16th and 18th overall selections.<\/p>\n

The Capitals last made two first-round picks in 2012, taking Filip Forsberg<\/a> 11th overall and Tom Wilson<\/a> 16th overall. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Caps assistant general manager Ross Mahoney was enthusiastic about the prospect of two top-20 picks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty excited, actually, to have the 16 and 18,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019s definitely going to be some good players available for us. I don\u2019t think it drops off until a little bit after [those picks]. So yeah, the guys are pretty excited. The scouts are really excited about being able to have those two picks\u2026 It\u2019s not like one pick is 16 and one pick is 30. They\u2019re in a very good range there for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having two picks nearly back-to-back has made the scouting department\u2019s job easier, Mahoney said, with the team identifying a group of players they could select at that draft position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a group probably of five or six (players) that I think, \u2018Our two guys could be in that group of five or six.\u2019 But I get surprised every year. We\u2019re all of a sudden saying, \u201cOh, wow, so-and-so is still there, and we have a chance to get him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s always the chance, too, that the Capitals opt to trade the picks, either as part of a package for a current NHL player or to move up in the draft order. General manager Chris Patrick said in April<\/a> that the team is continuing to hunt for a high-scoring forward via trade, as well as a right defenseman.<\/p>\n

Mahoney also didn\u2019t rule out the possibility of the Capitals trying to move up, though he wasn\u2019t sure if teams would be open to trading top-10 picks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou strategize and (have) those discussions for sure,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cDo we package them up, move up? Or, you know, do you take one of them and move back? That\u2019s all the strategy that goes into it before you get to the draft. And then as the draft is going along, you\u2019re making those decisions as to what you would do or try to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now we\u2019re very happy with 16 and 18, but you always talk about either way, you know, trading up or trading back\u2026 honestly it\u2019s part of the fun of it, the strategy of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahoney emphasized that the organization\u2019s philosophy is picking the best player available rather than drafting by position, but pointed to center and defense as areas the Caps\u2019 prospect pool would like to shore up, especially as wingers graduate to the NHL level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a center was available, I think that would help,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cI\u2019m saying that because of the Ryan Leonards, Andrew Cristall, Lynden Lakovic, there are a lot of wingers. And there\u2019s always a need for a defenseman, too. Probably it would be nice to get a bigger defenseman in the draft, if we could. Obviously we have Cole Hutson coming along, but he\u2019s a little bit of the smaller variety, highly gifted and talented offensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if we could get a bigger defenseman and a bigger center, I think that would help, but it depends on who\u2019s there. And there\u2019s some really good players at all positions for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mahoney anticipates plenty of defensemen being available when the Capitals pick, they could have more difficulty finding a center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the draft is pretty heavy on defensemen and left-wingers when I look overall, as far as the first round, which is kind of interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cI think a lot of years there\u2019s probably more centers that are available in the top 32 picks, as compared to this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NHL Draft will kick off on Friday in Buffalo, NY, with rounds 2-7 to follow on Saturday. This year marks the second straight decentralized draft for the league, with Capitals management set to make its picks from the team\u2019s practice facility in Arlington, Va.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals are set to pick twice in the first round of the NHL Draft for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-721205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}