Washington Capitals assistant general manager Ross Mahoney met with the media at MedStar Capitals Iceplex on Tuesday, just three days ahead of the 2025 NHL Draft. Mahoney fielded questions about the Capitals’ draft strategy headed into the first round, where the team holds the 27th overall selection.
“We always take the best player available,” Mahoney said. “And I know that question comes up all the time, but we really do. I mean, if you went by position, I think you run that risk of saying, ‘Well, let’s take a defenseman this year, we’re a little light on defense.’ And then a forward goes, and he ends up being a much better player. You’re probably kicking yourself after for not doing that.”
After explaining the strategy, Mahoney also shared an interesting anecdote about the 2006 NHL Draft, in which the Capitals deviated from their usual practice of selecting the top name on their board for the first and only time under Mahoney’s watch.
“The one year, it was really close, I think, as far as the players. But there were a lot of goaltenders. We ended up taking (Semyon) Varlamov in the first round, we took Michal Neuvirth in the second round, and we were going to take Steve Mason, I think, in the third round. We had discussed that, George and I, and we had already got a couple of goalies, but looking back at it, we should have taken Steve Mason.
“He ended up making it (to the NHL). It would have given us another prospect either to play on our team, or you could use for trades. We really thought there was a strong year that year for goaltenders. So that would probably be the exception of the 27 drafts that I’ve been through.”
The Capitals had 10 picks in the 2006 draft, with five coming within the first two rounds. With the fourth overall selection, the team sent a young Alex Ovechkin up to the podium to announce that the Caps had selected Swedish center Nicklas Backstrom.
After taking Backstrom, the Capitals were back on the clock at 23rd overall and selected goaltender Semyon Varlamov. The club then made Michal Neuvirth their first of three second-round picks and passed on Steve Mason twice in favor of forward Francois Bouchard and defenseman Keith Seabrook. Washington did not have a third-round pick, so, according to Mahoney, one of those second-round selections was likely intended to be Mason.
The young Canadian netminder fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets early in the third round, 69th overall, and would go on to play 10 years in the NHL. In 2009, he won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and was named to the league’s Second All-Star Team after posting a 33-20-7 record for Columbus with a 2.29 goals-against average, a .916 save percentage, and 10 shutouts.
When it comes to this year’s draft, Mahoney doesn’t foresee a similar run on goalies for any team. He believes the draft is top-heavy up front, which may hint that the Capitals take a winger or center on Friday night.
“I think the top of the draft, probably the first 40 picks, is pretty heavy on forwards,” Mahoney said. “Probably even more so on centers. I think there’ll be a lot of centers going in the first round. A little lighter on goaltenders, not to say there aren’t good goaltenders, but probably the number of goaltenders this year compared to other years is a little bit light. Same with defensemen, probably in the first 40 picks. A little later on, I think there’s a lot more defensemen that’ll be drafted, but if I were to kinda do the top 40 for you, it would be lots of centers.”
The Capitals hold five total draft picks in this year’s draft, with one pick in each round up until the sixth round. Outside of picking at 27th overall, the team’s next best pick is the fifth-highest selection in the second round, which they acquired from the Boston Bruins at the 2023 trade deadline.
