{"id":871527,"date":"2026-10-05T11:42:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871527\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T11:42:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T11:42:20","slug":"he-needs-to-get-in-the-gym-capitals-first-round-pick-terik-parascak-healthy-scratched-opening-weekend-as-bears-take-patient-approach-with-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/871527\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He needs to get in the gym\u2019: Capitals first-round pick Terik Parascak healthy-scratched opening weekend as Bears take patient approach with prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

HERSHEY, PA \u2014 While Lynden Lakovic<\/a> and Petr Sikora<\/a> had a promising opening weekend for the Hershey Bears, another Washington Capitals<\/a> prospect was kept on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Terik Parascak was a healthy scratch in both of Hershey\u2019s games against the Charlotte Checkers on Saturday and Sunday \u2014 a surprising decision from afar considering his pedigree.<\/p>\n

Parascak was the Capitals\u2019 first-round pick, 17th overall, in the 2024 NHL Draft, earning the moniker \u201cSuper Rookie\u201d during his time in the WHL with Prince George<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After Saturday\u2019s scratch in the home opener, Bears head coach Derek King said Parascak was sitting due to a numbers game before getting more blunt in his assessment of the six-foot, 191-pound winger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he\u2019s just, you know, we have so many bodies,\u201d King began. \u201cHe\u2019s a young kid. He needs to get in the gym. He needs to work out, get stronger, work on some things in his game. But I had a good conversation with him and told him it\u2019s a process, and we know that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for a long time, trying to develop players, young players, and there\u2019s a way about it,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to just throw him to the wolves. So it\u2019s probably a good thing he didn\u2019t play tonight. But he\u2019ll eventually get in. It\u2019s just like I said, it\u2019s good to have him here so he can see how the pace is, practice with us, and get his workouts in. And when he gets in the game, he\u2019s ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HersheyThe Hershey Bears scratches on opening night. (\ud83d\udcf8: Ian Oland\/RMNB)<\/p>\n

The start of the 2026-27 season marks King\u2019s second year with the Bears and his 14th overall behind an AHL bench as head coach, which includes stints with the Toronto Marlies and Rockford IceHogs. King also played 14 seasons in the NHL as a forward, recording 612 points (261g, 351a) in 830 games during stops with the New York Islanders, Hartford Whalers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and St. Louis Blues.<\/p>\n

Parascak\u2019s treatment, at least initially this season, is reminiscent of how the Bears took it slow with forward Alex Suzdalev when he first arrived to the team during the 2023-24 campaign. With similar concerns about his frame, the Bears, then under the guidance of Todd Nelson, scratched Suzdalev in 11-straight games<\/a> before the Capitals loaned him to Mora IK in the HockeyAllsvenskan \u2014 Sweden\u2019s second-tier professional league. Two seasons later, Suzdalev is now coming into his own, beginning this season in the Bears\u2019 top six.<\/p>\n

Parascak arrived in Hershey this fall after three prolific seasons with the WHL\u2019s Prince George Cougars. The Capitals selected him 17th overall after he erupted for 105 points (43g, 62a) as a 17-year-old, leading all CHL first-year players in both goals and scoring. He followed that breakout campaign with 82 points in 2024-25 before making his professional debut with Hershey at 18<\/a>, after Prince George\u2019s elimination from the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Parascak returned to Prince George for one final season in 2025-26 and led the Cougars with 79 points (33g, 46a) in 61 games while serving as an alternate captain. He added 17 points (7g, 10a) in 12 playoff games before rejoining Hershey in April as a black ace. <\/p>\n

This fall, Parascak, now 20, participated both in Capitals rookie camp and training camp before being assigned to Hershey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t minded his camp at all,\u201d Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said. \u201cI think it\u2019s starting to come. I\u2019m starting to see some of the things. I know he jumped out multiple occasions through whether it was practice scenarios or scrimmage scenarios. He\u2019s caught my eye multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding strength has been a recurring theme throughout Parascak\u2019s development. During an interview with RMNB after his first stint in Hershey in 2025<\/a>, Parascak identified getting stronger as one of his primary offseason goals. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for me is to put on some size,\u201d he said then. \u201cI think I\u2019m definitely not the biggest guy, but get a little bit more strength on me, and I think that kind of will translate to a lot of areas in my game. Puck battles are a big one. My skating, I\u2019ll get faster with the more strength I put on, and my shot will get better, too. So, I think just overall strength in the gym is what I\u2019m looking to improve the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parascak will have ample support both from Bears management and his teammates. Lynden Lakovic, the Bears\u2019 first-round pick in 2025, is currently staying with Parascak in a Hershey hotel and the two plan to room together this season \u2014 a good matchup as the pair go through the highs and lows of their rookie campaigns pro.<\/p>\n

As Parascak sat this weekend, he was joined in the luxury suites by several other prominent players as a healthy scratch, including the scorer of the Calder Cup-winning goal in 2024, Matt Strome. The checking-line winger, the younger brother of Capitals centerman Dylan Strome, re-signed with the team in August but was not named to the team\u2019s on-ice leadership group<\/a> or given a jersey to start the year.<\/p>\n

When asked about both of those decisions by RMNB [Editor\u2019s note: In my question, I described it as Strome not being part of the \u201cleadership committee\u201d], King responded, \u201cWhy am I going to put an \u2018A\u2019 on him and he\u2019s going to sit in the stands? What, he\u2019s going to cheer on the fans?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s part of our leadership committee,\u201d he continued. \u201cNobody ever said he wasn\u2019t. He\u2019s going to be a guy, and he knew that like Smitty (Dalton Smith) and that, they\u2019re going to play so many games a year. They\u2019re not going to play a full season. We have some other guys that are in the lineup full-time that are leaders, so I need guys that are going to be here full-time, like in the lineup all the time, being the leader. But there\u2019s nothing stopping him. He\u2019ll get an A sometimes (he did) last year. He\u2019s always voting. He\u2019s always part of our leadership. So I don\u2019t know where you got that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HERSHEY, PA \u2014 While Lynden Lakovic and Petr Sikora had a promising opening weekend for the Hershey Bears,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871528,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-871527","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\/871527","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=871527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}