For the Washington Capitals, day two of the 2024 NHL Draft was a busy and productive one that eight new prospects into the organization. But they weren’t busy just with their seven second-day selections after taking right wing Terik Parascak with their first-round choice (17th overall) on Friday night. The Caps were in action early on Saturday morning, swinging a deal with Buffalo before the first prospect’s name was called on the draft floor on day two. An hour later, the Caps made another swap – their fourth trade in less than two weeks – with the Vegas Golden Knights.
As the day wore on, Washington made two selections in the second round, two more in the third, and the Caps also made choices in the fourth, sixth and seventh rounds. The deals they made added a second-round pick, enabled them to move up in the third round, and they also made a deal to move into the seventh round; the Caps did not hold a seventh-round pick in the 2024 Draft when they arrived in Vegas earlier in the week.
Washington finished the weekend with three of the top 52 selections, four of the top 75, and five of the top 90 picks in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Before the second day’s selections got started, the Caps sent left wing Beck Malenstyn to Buffalo for a second-round choice, the 43rd overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft. About an hour later, the Caps announced that they had traded a third-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft – originally belonging to the New York Islanders – and the Caps’ own third-rounder in the 2025 Draft to Vegas in exchange for goaltender Logan Thompson, who started his pro career in the Caps’ organization with ECHL South Carolina in 2019-20.
Thompson was scheduled to be at Sphere for an autograph signing session on Saturday, but before he could leave home for his destination, he learned he would be returning to the Washington organization.
“It’s weird; I’ve never been traded before, in junior or in pros,” says a smiling Thompson. “So a lot of emotions still running through me, and it’s going to take a couple of days to process. The only thing I’ve ever known in the NHL is the Golden Knights, so it’s going to be different.
“I’m happy to come back to Washington. That’s where my pro career started and I have a lot of good relationships out there, so I’m excited to come back. Me and [Caps’ goalie coach] Scotty Murray, we always stayed in touch. And every time that he was in town or I was there, we’d go out and grab coffee. So I’m excited to work with him and to get things going, and hopefully build my game.”
With second-rounder gained in the Malenstyn deal, the Caps chose defenseman Cole Hutson of the U.S. National Development Team Program.
Hutson is the younger brother of Lane Hutson, a second-round choice of the Montreal Canadiens in the 2022 NHL Draft. The elder Hutson began has NHL career with the Habs late in the 2023-24 season, getting into two games after finishing his sophomore season at Boston University.
“I had a pretty good idea going into today that they might want me, because I had a pretty good meeting previously with them,” says Cole Hutson of hearing the Caps call his name in the second round, a day after he celebrated his 18th birthday in Vegas.
In 2023-24, Cole Hutson racked up 51 points (15 goals, 36 assists) in as many games to establish a new standard for most points by an NTDP defenseman in a single season. The 5-foot-11, 165-pound blueliner is headed to Boston University in the fall.
“Really smart, really good hands, very deceptive with the puck,” says Caps’ assistant general manager Ross Mahoney of Hutson. “He’s got more moves and shoulder fakes and head fakes and has that ability to score also; he’s got a really good shot. We think he’s got the ability to quarterback a power play at some time in the future. I’m sure that going to [Boston U.] this year, he might even get that opportunity there now that his brother is probably gone.
“He’s a good skater, but really, really good with the puck – a good offensive defenseman.”
With their remaining second-round selection – No. 52 overall – the Caps again dipped into the defense pool and chose Swiss blueliner Leon Muggli, a 6-foot-0, 165-pound blueliner who held his own with Zug EV of the Swiss-A League.
“It’s special,” says Muggli. “You dream about it when you’re young, and now you’re in Vegas hearing your name called to such a great organization. It’s great.”
As a 17-year-old – he turns 18 on July 9 – playing against men last season, Muggli posted three goals and a dozen points in 42 games, matching the point total of 24-year-old teammate Tobias Geisser, who was the Caps’ fourth-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft.
“I would say more of a defensive, two-way defenseman,” says Muggli by way of a self-description of his style. “Good first pass, likes to follow the rush, good skating ability, good hockey IQ. I’m calm under pressure, and I think Josh Morrissey and Gustav Forsling are good comparables. I look up to them.”
“He has always been the captain of the Swiss U-18 team and the U-17 team,” says Mahoney of Muggli. “But he also played with the men this year in Zuv, and he played a regular shift, got some penalty killing time. He’s probably more of a two-way defenseman; as we said [Hutson] is more of an offensive minded defenseman, and very gifted. But Muggli is very, very good both ways.”
As the third round began on Saturday at Sphere in Vegas, the Caps swung yet another swap, this one to move up in the third round. Washington sent its third-round pick (No. 82 overall) and its fifth-rounder (No. 146 overall) in 2024 to New Jersey in exchange for the Devils’ third-round choice (No. 75 overall). With the 75th overall pick, the Caps chose forward Ilya Protas from Des Moines of the USHL. Protas is the younger brother of Caps’ forward Aliaksei Protas, a third-round Washington selection from the 2019 Draft in Vancouver.
Ironically, Washington also made a deal with the Devils to move up and take the elder Protas at the draft five years ago. Aliaksei Protas was chosen with the 91st overall pick in 2019.
“When New Jersey traded the pick, [Aliaksei] told me, ‘When it was my draft, it was the same thing; New Jersey traded picks with the Capitals,” says Ilya Protas. “And when they said, ‘Des Moines Buccaneers,’ I just was so happy.”
The two brothers are beyond thrilled to be in the same organization together. Ilya is five years younger than Aliaksei, and the younger Protas says the two have never played on a team together before at any level; they’ve only practiced together.
“It’s a special moment, special day for me and my family,” says Ilya Protas. “I don’t have words to explain, I’m just happy to be in this organization.”
Ilya Protas totaled 14 goals and 51 points in 61 games with Des Moines last season. The 6-foot-5, 198-pound Belarusian forward turns 18 in less than three weeks, on July 18.
“They’re obviously huge; they’re both really big kids,” says Mahoney of the Protas brothers. “I think the younger brother we took today, his skating might even be a little better at the same age. They’ve both got good hands, they’re both really smart, and like we said, they’re both really, really big kids.
“I know the brothers are very, very close,” says Mahoney. “When we had talked to Ilya at the Gold Star camp last week in Florida, he said that every game they talk to each other, no matter who is playing. That’s pretty cool.”
With their remaining third-round choice (No. 90 overall), the Capitals opted for sizable Latvian forward Eriks Mateiko, who played for Saint John in the QMJHL last season. Mateiko turns 19 in November, and he already stands 6-foot-5, and he tips the scales at 216 pounds.
“For me, I still don’t know what happened, to be honest,” says Mateiko. “It’s an amazing feeling and I know the Caps had a lot of interest in me, but overall it’s just an amazing feeling for me, and especially going to Washington. It’s my dad’s favorite team and I really like the team, so it’s amazing.”
Mateiko totaled 23 goals and 43 points in 49 games with QMJHL Saint John in 2023-24, his second season in that league.
“I would say I’m a power forward,” says Mateiko. “I think what I have to improve is my physical game. I think I have to improve my physical game, and also my acceleration, skating a little bit, and also my offensive game overall, like cutbacks, all those things, I think puck protection. But my game is mostly defensive-minded; I try to play for the team mostly, and block shots, kill the PKs, and just a good team player. That’s for me.”
With a late 2005 birthday, Mateiko could turn pro after one more season in the QMJHL.
“He’s obviously a big kid, probably 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5,” says Mahoney of Mateiko. “Our Quebec scouts – Ali Laaouan and Alan Haworth – really liked him a lot. We thought he played really well at the World Junior for Latvia also. I thought he was one of their better players there.
“I guess probably the hard part for him is playing in Saint John; they had not the greatest year and I’m sure the team was in a rebuilding phase, so I think maybe we got some real good value there. Sometimes when you’re playing on a team that’s not one of the better teams in the league, you’re not going to put up as many points and things aren’t going to go the way they would on a really good team with high-end players. So I think we got some really good value with that pick.”
In the fourth round, the Caps chose goaltender Nick Kempf from the U.S. NDTP U-18 squad. A native of Morton Grove, Ill., Kempf will be attending Notre Dame University in the fall.
“It’s awesome,” he says. “Obviously, I’ve dreamed about this moment my whole life, so for it to finally come true is super special, so I’m super excited.”
Kempf stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 189 pounds. A native of Morton Grove, Ill., Kempf turned 18 in March.
Over the years, the Caps have had some success with choosing goaltenders in the fourth round; they hit on Braden Holtby (93rd overall in 2008) and Philipp Grubauer (112 th overall in 2010), and Mitchell Gibson (124th overall in 2018) showed promise in his first full pro season in 2023-24.
“Holtby was actually a guy that I enjoyed watching,” says Kempf. “Not someone that I really modeled my game after, but he was fun to watch. And then [Thatcher] Demko and [Jake] Oettinger are two guys I really like to watch.”
“I know our goalie coaches really liked him a lot,” says Mahoney of Kempf. “We always send video to Scotty Murray and Juha [Lehtola] in [Hershey of] the American League. And Darrell Baumgartner – our western Canada scout and also our goalie guru – really liked him a lot also. Good size – probably 6-foot-3 – and very athletic. And we’ve always liked athletic goaltenders if you look at our past years: the [Ilya] Samsonovs, and the Holtbys and the Grubauers and the [Michal] Neuvirths and on and on and on, we’ve taken really athletic goalies, and this kid is a good athlete.”
Washington appeared to have made its final pick of the day in the sixth round with the 178th overall selection. Here, the Caps chose center Petr Sikora from Trinec Ocelari HC of the Czech junior league. At 5-foot-11, 172 pounds, Sikora is the smallest of the forwards the Capitals selected in the 2024 NHL Draft, but he plays bigger than his size and is known for being a smart, two-way pivot who plays with and edge. Sikora turned 18 in January; he was not present in Vegas for the 2024 Draft.
But the Caps had one more prospect they had an eye on, and they also had a trade partner – the Vegas Golden Knights, again – who was willing to accommodate them if the player Washington coveted was still available. When that turned out to be the case, the Caps sent their sixth-round pick in the 2025 Draft to Vegas for the Golden Knights’ seventh-rounder in 2024, the 212th overall pick. With that choice, the Caps went with a familiar name to many hockey fans, selecting forward Miroslav Satan, the son of the longtime NHL player of the same name, who played over a thousand NHL games in a career that spanned 14 seasons.
The elder Satan, now 49, was 6-foot-1 and 195 pounds during his playing days. His son is already half a foot taller at 6-foot-7, and he weighs 190 pounds.
“I think he is 6-foot-7 maybe, and 17 years old,” says Mahoney of Satan, who was not in Vegas for the draft. “Obviously good bloodlines; his father Miroslav was such a good player. We’re going to have to be patient. I think when I was 17, I was about 5-foot-10 and I was very awkward, so I can’t imagine being 6-foot-7. But he is smart player; I think he is a very good skater for his size. It’s a matter of filling into that big body and getting a little more strength. We’ve just got to be patient with him; I think it’s a real good pick where we got him.”
Washington’s 2024 Draft haul of eight players is the most the Caps have brought home from an NHL Draft since they made 10 selections at the 2012 Draft in Pittsburgh. As it stands now, the Caps have eight picks in the 2025 NHL Draft, with all eight coming in the first five rounds. Washington does not have its sixth and seven round picks for next summer’s draft, but it holds two picks in the second, third, and fifth rounds.
