Young Guns Galore: 4 Rookies Make Caps’ Opening Night Roster

The Washington Capitals – a team known for their superstar veterans – have just added a ton of youth as four rookies have made the big club’s Opening Night roster after strong showings throughout training camp.

Hendrix Lapierre, 19; Connor McMichael, 20; Martin Fehervary, 22; and Beck Malenstyn, 23; will all be sticking around in Washington after each impressed coaches & teammates alike with their performances throughout training camp and preseason play. So let’s break it down guy by guy and let fans know how each of them got here, as well as what can be expected from them moving forward:

Hendrix Lapierre, 19 years old, CENTER, 1st Round pick by Washington in 2020:

Hendrix Lapierre is an interesting case, in that he was originally projected to be a surefire top-10 pick in the 2020 draft, but a scary injury forced him to miss significant time during his draft year and as such, he fell all the way into the Caps’ lap at 22nd overall, where they were more than happy to snag him (and actually traded up in order to do so). A top-10 talent, teams were scared off by what they thought were several concussions in short succession. But the Caps had evidently done more thorough homework than most, as they knew at the time that Lapierre was falling all the way to 22nd overall that it was actually a neck injury that had plagued him. He had initially been misdiagnosed. And more than that — that neck injury has since been corrected. Lapierre is healthy. And boy, could you ever see that during his first NHL preseason.

Lapierre tied for the team-lead with some guy named Evgeny Kuznetsov during the preseason, putting up an impressive 5 points in just 4 games, mostly against NHL regulars. He finished the preseason tied for 3rd in assists league-wide — tied with names like Leon Draisaitl & Nikita Kucherov. Not too shabby, kid.

We all knew Lapierre was going to be a huge part of the Capitals’ future — but now, his stellar training camp, combined with an injury to franchise centerman Nicklas Backstrom, has created the perfect storm for Lapierre to force his way onto this team perhaps a year or two before anyone thought he’d be here. He is still just 19 years old, after all. But sometimes, when you’re that talented and that determined — age is just a number.

Congratulations, kid.

Connor McMichael, 20 years old, CENTER, 1st Round pick by Washington in 2019:

Of the two young centers on this list, Connor McMichael was probably the one we expected to be here this year or next. A year older than Lapierre, he’s had a year longer to show Caps fans what he can do, and he’s certainly already shown a lot.

I wrote about McMichael here, less than a year ago, after being extremely impressed for the second year in a row while watching him play for Canada at the World Junior Championship.

And all he’s done since then, is author one of the most impressive underage AHL performances of all-time. Yes, McMichael wasn’t supposed to be allowed to play in the AHL last season, as he was still too young. In a normal year, he would’ve been back with his junior team in the OHL for one more season. But as we know, the last year and a half or so has been anything but normal for all of us, and so with the OHL season being wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, McMichael & a few other gifted youngsters were given special permission to head to the AHL a year before they were eligible. The result? As an underage (!!!) player, McMichael still managed to lead the Hershey Bears in goals, points, and he led the entire AHL in game-winning goals because why not.

The kid has the clutch gene. I’ve written about it before, I’m sure I will write about it again, and I look forward to watching him score many big goals in a Capitals jersey.

McMichael is a natural center but he can play the wing as well, and that versatility may come in handy if Alex Ovechkin (lower-body, day-to-day) isn’t yet healed in time for the season opener. Caps head coach Peter Laviolette has had McMichael skating in Ovi’s spot at left wing on the top line the last few days, as the Great Eight tries to heal up quickly.

Martin Fehervary, 22 years old, DEFENSEMAN, 2nd Round pick by Washington in 2018:

Marty Fehervary is another guy who most Caps fans probably had penciled in to make this team this season, so the fact that he’s on the Opening Night roster probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise. In fact – if we’re being honest – I think most people probably wanted him on this team awhile ago. He’s pretty clearly been NHL-ready for at least a full year now, he’s fit in seamlessly anytime he’s been called up — and now, with the offseason departures of Brenden Dillon & Zdeno Chara, there was finally a spot that opened up on Washington’s blue line.

Enter Marty Fehervary.

The kid’s got good size (which he uses well in front of his own net), he’s a smooth skater, he’s got good positioning, he’s smart with & without the puck — he’s basically one of those coveted defensemen who are good at everything & bad at nothing. He’s still very young, especially in “D-man years” (he just had his 22nd birthday on October 6th) — but he really doesn’t show his age on the ice. He’s very calm, very poised, he doesn’t make many (if any) mistakes. He’s exactly the type of young player that coaches can actually trust.

And we’re already getting an idea of just how good the coaching staff actually thinks this kid is, as they’ve had him lining up next to perennial Norris trophy candidate John Carlson on the top pairing for the duration of training camp, and it sure looks as if they plan on keeping him there. Marty hasn’t given them any reason not to.

Beck Malenstyn, 23 years old, WINGER, 5th Round pick by Washington in 2016:

He has been described to me by Hershey Bears season ticket holders as Hershey’s version of Tom Wilson, “mini Tom Wilson”, “a poor man’s Tom Wilson”, etc.

That’s probably all we need to know in order to love him.

Welcome to the Caps, Beck.

In all seriousness, he looked really good on the left wing of staples Nic Dowd & Garnet Hathaway on the Caps’ fourth line, during preseason action. It’s quite possible we’re looking at our Carl Hagelin replacement, and for about a quarter of the cap hit? I love Hags, but he is getting older, and his contract was always a bit rich for a guy who’s a fourth liner on this roster. Malenstyn certainly brings a physicality that Hagelin does not. Just imagine going into one corner and getting run by Hathaway, only to try the other corner and get run by Malenstyn. Yikes.

All in all, it’s a great thing for the Caps that these kids have continued to develop to where they can come in and seriously contribute to an NHL lineup, a Cup-contending lineup. Having talented youngsters on cheap contracts is the name of the game in the salary cap era, especially if you want to contend year after year the way that the Capitals have always managed to throughout the Ovechkin era.

You add these four rookies to a team that had already added a young top-six winger in Daniel Sprong recently, as well as having the youngest goalie tandem in the entire NHL — and suddenly the rival jokes about the “over the hill Caps” don’t make much sense anymore.