Capitals: Jakub Vrana off to high-flying start this season

Jakub Vrana has helped the Washington Capitals not miss a beat despite losing several key forwards during the offseason.

This past summer, when the Washington Capitals opted to trade forward Andre Burakovsky and allowed forward Brett Connolly to leave via free agency, they lost 34 goals and 37 assists. This also left the Caps with two sizable holes to fill in their offensive attack.

Richard Panik, Garnet Hathaway, and Brendan Leipsic were projected to fill the void left by these departures. Those three have combined for three goals and eight assists with Panik, the most prominent of the additions, registering 0 points before hitting the injured reserve list in early October. To say Panik is a bust is aggressive at this point, but he has been underwhelming, to say the least.

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Thankfully for the Capitals, 23-year-old left wing Jakub Vrana has more than helped to fill the void left by the departing pair of wingers. Vrana, with a freshly inked two-year, $3.35 million contract, is off to a high-flying start, picking up nine goals and five assists over the first 16 games of the year. Math isn’t my strong suit, but Vrana is on pace to shatter his career high in goals that he set last year with 24.

The Czech native is not likely to hit his current goal-scoring pace of 46 on the year, but a 30+ goal season could be on the horizon. Playing second line minutes with Tom Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov certainly helps, but Vrana has been doing his part to carry the play of this line as well. He even recorded his first career hat trick on Nov. 3 against the Calgary Flames. It was Vrana’s sixth career multi-goal game and second of the season.

Lars Eller was complimentary of the young winger after the contest, saying, “He has it in him. I don’t expect him to score three every night but he’s got that kind of talent that he can do that once in a while.”

His speed is by far his best asset and his ability to get up and down the ice has helped him be more productive so far this season despite averaging fewer minutes per game. Vrana should be in line for an increase from his 13:50 of ice time per night if the keeps up his current rate of production.

His 14 points on the season rank him fourth third on the team behind only Alex Ovechkin and Norris front-runner John Carlson. His nine goals rank him only behind Ovechkin within the team and in a ninth-place tie league-wide.

The NHL leading Capitals will get back in action on Thursday night as they visit the Florida Panthers in Sunrise, Florida looking for their fifth consecutive win.