Caps Pick Parascak in First Round 

Kicking off the second half of the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas, the Capitals chose right wing Terik Parascak of Prince George of the Western Hockey League. As a 17-year-old rookie in the WHL last season, Parascak more than lived up to his nickname of “Super Rookie,” amassing 43 goals and 62 assists for 105 points. He finished in a tie for ninth place in the WHL in goals and was eighth in the circuit in scoring. Parascak celebrated his 18th birthday a month ago, on May 28.

The Caps have always prized hockey sense as one of the top attributes they’re after on draft day, and Parascak checks that box.

“A really intelligent player, a really, really smart player,” says Caps’ assistant general manager Ross Mahoney, who is conducting his 27th draft for the Capitals here this weekend. “He sees the ice really well, has a really good touch around the net, if you take a look at the number of points he had and the number of goals he scored. But I think that intelligence really translates over into his penalty kill; he might have been fourth in the league in shorthanded goals.

“He’s a hard-working kid, but I really like the hands and the hockey sense.”

Parascak had a large contingent of family and friends follow him down to Vegas this weekend for his big moment.

“I don’t even know the exact number; I think it’s probably close to 40 or 50,” he says. “It’s pretty unbelievable for them to come down and support me. I couldn’t be more grateful.”

Parascak spent most of his age 16 season skating for Edge School, though he did get into four WHL contests as well. It’s been a whirlwind of a ’23-24 season for the native of Lethbridge, Alberta, and he was surprised and thrilled to hear his name called midway through the first round on Friday night at Sphere.

“Yeah, I think just the whole experience here, I didn’t know what to expect, and it was all just play everything by ear,” says Parascak. “That was kind of my whole year, just go with the flow of everything. I was definitely surprised, but I couldn’t be more excited.”

The Caps figure to be quite familiar with Parascak; he was a teammate of Zac Funk at Prince George, and Washington inked Funk – who led the WHL with 67 goals and finished second in scoring with 123 points last season – to an entry level contract on March 1 of this year.

“I had a couple of meetings with them,” says Parascak of the Capitals. “I thought the meetings went…