I'll make up my two skipped picks now for Hogsmeade, which I believe are the last in the draft for me. They're sentimental picks that I think make sense...
First, I need a spare centre, so I'll take who I think might be the best offensive player left on the board in
Dick Irvin. I have a bio for him from the pre-WW2 draft that I'll repost in this year's bio thread for more visibility, along with the others I have.
Then for my second pick... I really like the idea of a specialized assistant coach. I took one last year with the very last pick, and I could take him again, but as was the logic in taking Gordie Howe over Bobby Orr with the first pick, I don't like running back the same gag twice. So I'll go with someone else with ties to the Capitals, in skating coach
Wendy Marco.
As with my Tom Wilson bio, some of these quotes will be transcribed from audio clips.
Wendy Marco said:
Over the past 3 decades I’ve originated hundreds of creative drills and developed techniques that have been adopted by coaches throughout the world. I’ve published articles, produced a DVD, patented training equipment, and was a featured speaker at both International Hockey Skating Symposiums. Some of the thousands of skaters I’ve taught have won National Championships, the Frozen Four, the Stanley Cup and Olympic Gold. One of my long-time students, Mike Ansell, even became an NHL skating coach (Buffalo Sabres) before I did. For many years I have worked with Capitals players privately off-season and occasionally the team would hire me to skate with a player on IR, but it wasn’t until [2023], after three decades in the sport, that I was handed the blue and red track suit and finally made my “official” NHL debut as the skating coach for the Washington Capitals.
It’s my job to help Washington Capitals players and prospects improve their skating speed, power, agility, balance, and efficiency. Additionally, I run the skating portion of the Capitals development camps and serve as the skating coach for the Capitals AHL affiliate, Hershey Bears. When I’m not on the ice with the Capitals organization, I run a hockey instruction company in Northern Virginia, ColdRush, with hundreds of youth travel, junior, and college players.
Nicklas Backstrom said:
I had never really had any skating coach in entire life, so it was great, very great relationship. I noticed right away when I got out on the ice with her that she was very, very good.
Mike Ansell (Sabres skating coach) said:
She’s able to dissect and break down a skater’s problem to their root. It’s not a small ‘put a Band-Aid on it.’ She’s able to dissect and find it to the core and fix that problem internally.
John Carlson said:
My ears and eyes are always open and I'm trying to get better no matter what I'm doing, whether it's by myself or getting instruction and practice. I believe in all her stuff... I think you take it like that to try and get better and try to work on things. You're gonna come out of it in a better spot.
Jeff Halpern said:
I look at video of myself playing before 2010, when I started working with her, and it’s like I can’t watch it because it’s so bad. I wish I could go back [and start sooner]. It is like getting a superpower… I think if I saw that early in my career, it would have been a huge difference.
Kids growing up in that Ashburn ice rink and the kids that she touches, you know, in the D.C. area, they’re such good skaters... They’re so much better than other kids around them, and it’s a credit to her. I think it’s remarkable what she does.
Ethen Frank (AHL fastest skater competition winner) said:
She’s got a great mind for the mechanics of skating. It’s crazy how she’ll tell you to counter rotate your body and it doesn’t make sense as she’s talking about it, but you do it and it makes sense, you feel how it clicks. She’s got a great mind for skating and the mechanics of it for sure.
The Hockey News - 16 July 2024 said:
Wendy Marco is brilliant — that's the first thing. She can make a huge difference for players, and every single Capitals prospect [Caps reporter Sammi Silber] spoke to at camp sang her praises and stressed just how vital every single drill was.
Like my Hogsmeade Lunas, the Capitals are one of the biggest teams in the league up front. Big fellas aren't renowned for the skating ability, but with the help of Marco, they've managed to turn them into speedsters...
6'6, ~250lb monster Aliaksei Protas fell to the 3rd round in 2019 because of his skating, and has since developed into an elite skater and player. Courtesy of the NHL's puck and player tracking data:
| Year | Top Skating Speed (mph) | >20mph Speed Bursts | Overall Skating Distance (miles) |
| 2023 | 22.46 65th percentile) | 83 (66th percentile) | 104.25 (below 50th percentile) |
| 2024 | 22.74 (76th percentile) | 135 (83rd percentile) | 171 (64th percentile) |
| 2025 | 23.18 (92nd percentile) | 123 (89th percentile) | 153.89 (79th percentile) |
The Washington Post - 31 October 2024 said:
[Lower-body strength] has always been my weakness because of height,” [Aliaksei] Protas said. “You have to focus on that and work basically every day to get better. It’s a lot harder for the tall guys to get more muscle. It takes more time, so you have to work like twice more than everybody else... Thanks to the strength coaches here. Thank you to the skating coach Wendy Marco. [She] did a really good job to help me with that. My skating coach back home helped a lot the past couple years. Hard work pays off, you know?
Another prime example is 6"4, ~230lb Tom Wilson. Wilson developed into a very strong skater while Wendy was essentially a part-time member of the Capitals staff. However, she came aboard full-time just as Wilson was recovering from a torn ACL at the very end of the 2021-2022 season, an injury that usually saps players of their quickness. Again courtesy of NHL's puck and player tracking data, we see how Tom came all the way back to his pre-injury skating form under Wendy's watch:
| Year | Top Skating Speed (mph) | >20mph Speed Bursts | Overall Skating Distance (miles) |
| 2022 (pre-injury) | 23.23 (93rd percentile) | 218 (96th percentile) | 226.44 (92nd percentile) |
| 2023 (first season back) | 21.82 (below 50th percentile) | 45 (below 50th percentile) | 87.45 (below 50th percentile) |
| 2024 | 23.10 (90th percentile) | 187 (93rd percentile) | 215.79 (82nd percentile) |
| 2025 | 23.22 (93rd percentile) | 130 (92nd percentile) | 170.39 (89th percentile) |
Further proof of the organization's faith in Marco is their drafting strategy, as they are increasingly tending towards picking highly-skilled players with poor skating. Just look at their most recent draft - three players selected who were 6'5 or taller, including Aliaksei's brother Ilya Protas.
Hogsmeade is thrilled to have one of the best in the business getting as much juice out of our skaters as possible!
