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Capitals Make Five Selections at the 2025 NHL Draft | Washington Capitals

Published

8 months ago

June 28, 2025

Capitals Make Five Selections at the 2025 NHL Draft | Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals made five selections during the 2025 NHL Draft at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. On Friday, the Capitals selected left wing Lynden Lakovic with the 27th overall pick. During the second day of the draft on Saturday, Washington selected forwards Milton Gastrin (37th overall), Maxim Schafer (96th overall), Jackson Crowder (155th overall) and defenseman Aron Dahlqvist (180th overall).

Lakovic, 18, was ranked second among North American left wings and 14th among all North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. The 6’4”, 200-pound forward spent the 2024-25 season with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League (WHL) and established single-season career highs in goals (27), assists (31), points (58) and power-play goals (7) despite appearing in just 47 regular-season games. Lakovic led Moose Jaw in goals, points and shots on goal (183) and ranked second on the team in assists. Lakovic’s 1.23 point-per-game rate led the Warriors and was the fifth highest among draft eligible WHL players. The Kelowna, British Columbia native registered a career-long 13-game point streak (10g-9a–19p) from Nov. 8 – Dec. 27, which marked the 11th-longest point streak by a WHL skater in 2024-25. On Feb. 14, Lakovic was named Moose Jaw’s captain. In addition, Lakovic represented the Canadian Hockey League at the inaugural CHL-USA Prospects Challenge, where he registered two points (1g, 1a) in two games.

During the 2023-24 season, Lakovic registered 39 points (18g, 21a) in 68 regular-season games with Moose Jaw, marking a 32-point improvement from his rookie season in 2022-23 (2g-5a–7p in 37 GP). Lakovic added eight points (5g, 3a) in 20 playoff games, helping Moose Jaw win the WHL championship. Lakovic represented Team Canada Black at the 2022 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, recording three points (1g, 2a) in seven games.

It marked the 20th time in franchise history that the Capitals selected a player from the WHL in the first round and Lakovic became the 10th left wing selected in the opening round by Washington.

Gastrin, 18, was ranked third among all international skaters by NHL Central Scouting. The 6’1”, 194-pound forward spent the 2024-25 season with MoDo’s junior team (Sweden-Jr.), recording 42 points (18g, 24a) in 40 games played. Gastrin, who served as an alternate captain, led the team in goals and ranked second in assists and points. The Ornskoldsvik, Sweden native also made his professional hockey debut and appeared in eight regular-season games with MoDo of the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). Internationally, Gastrin has captained Sweden at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Championship, the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the 2022 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. At the 2025 Under-18 World Championship, Gastrin earned a silver medal after tallying 10 points (3g, 7a) in seven games.

Schafer, 18, recorded three points (1g, 2a) in 31 regular-season games with Eisbären Berlin of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (Germany-1) in 2024-25. Schafer was one of three teenagers to dress for Eisbären Berlin this past season and the only one to record a point. The 6’3”, 182-pound forward also appeared in six DEL playoff games, helping Eisbären Berlin capture the league championship. In addition, Schafer played 15 games with Eisbären Berlin’s U-20 team, registering 35 points (12g, 23a), and three games with Lausitzer Füchse of DEL2 (Germany-2). Shafer represented Germany at the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, the 2025 Under-18 World Championship and the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, amassing seven points (5g, 2a) in 14 games. At the World Junior Championship, Schafer recorded three points (2g, 1a) in five games, which ranked third on his team. Schafer served as an alternate captain for the Germans at the Under-18 World Championship, where he tied for the team lead in goals with three in five games.

Crowder, 18, recorded 24 points (11g, 13a) in 56 games between the Sioux City Musketeers and the Chicago Steel (USHL). The 6’2”, 184-pound forward ranked fourth among USHL rookies in penalty minutes (82), ninth in shots on goal (99) and tied for 17th in points. Crowder, a native of Allen, Texas, spent the 2023-24 season with the Dallas Stars Elite Under-16 team (16U-AAA), where he recorded a team-leading 107 points (48g, 59a) in 62 games. Crowder is committed to Ohio State University for the 2025-26 season.

Dahlqvist, 18, was ranked 17th among European defensemen and 48th among all European skaters by NHL Central Scouting. During the 2024-25 season, the 6’3”, 205-pound blueliner registered 12 points (2g, 10a) in 37 games with Brynäs IF’s U-20 team (Sweden-Jr.). Dahlqvist ranked second among the team’s defensemen in penalty minutes (43) and third in assists and points. The Gävle, Sweden native also appeared in 16 games with Brynäs IF in the Swedish Hockey League (Swedish-1). Internationally, Dahlqvist represented Sweden at the 2024 World Junior A Challenge, earning a silver medal.

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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