{"id":575185,"date":"2026-05-15T02:03:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/575185\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T02:03:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T02:03:22","slug":"capitals-2026-nhl-draft-targets-forward-nikita-klepov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/575185\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals 2026 NHL Draft Targets: Forward Nikita Klepov"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/nhl\/teams\/washington\/\" data-i13n=\"sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link\" data-ylk=\"slk:Washington Capitals;sec:content-canvas;subsec:anchor_text;elm:context_link;itc:0\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Washington Capitals&quot;,&quot;ySubModuleName&quot;:&quot;anchor_text&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Capitals<\/a> hold a couple of first-round draft picks, and this year&#8217;s draft pool features a plethora of depth.<\/p>\n<p>If the Capitals choose to keep those picks and add to their prospect pool, one name they may consider is forward Nikita Klepov.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The 17-year-old, ranked eighth among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting, made the jump from the USHL this season to play with the OHL&#8217;s Saginaw Spirit, where he put up 37 goals and 60 assistts for 97 points through 67 games in his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n<p>It was an impressive breakout year for Klepov, who&#8217;s committed to Michigan State, but not necessarily the most surprising given his skill-set. He works wonders with the puck and has a lethal shot and a lot of finesse and creativity, and his high hockey IQ helps him make good moves up the ice and smart passes and plays in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-, 183-pound forward is versatile and can be deployed in all situations, and is the kind of player that can spark a power play. He can also log heavy minutes, find the open space and has the mobility and creativity to generate offense and change the game when needed.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, to succeed at the highest level, he&#8217;ll need to add size and work on his skating and stride, though that&#8217;s all a work in progress, and time in the NCAA should more than help with his development. He&#8217;ll also have to show that this past season wasn&#8217;t a one-off and continue to show consistency after having put up just 31 points last year in the USHL.<\/p>\n<p>That said, Klepov is a dynamic player with flare and power, and his upside makes him a top name to watch going forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals hold a couple of first-round draft picks, and this year&#8217;s draft pool features a plethora&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[64307,5,4,1693,465,466,27992,17928,2642,109],"class_list":["post-575185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl-draft","tag-american-skaters","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-central-scouting","tag-nhl-draft","tag-nhl-entry-draft","tag-nikita-klepov","tag-prospect-pool","tag-saginaw-spirit","tag-washington-capitals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116576138227399514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}