Pre-WJC I'd go:
#1 Ryan Leonard* - W - BC Eagles
#2 Ivan Miroshnichenko - W - Hershey Bears/Washington Capitals
#3 Andrew Cristall - W - Kelowna Rockets (and Team Canada snub)
#4 Terik Parascak - W - PG Cougars
#5 Vincent Iorio - D - Hershey Bears
#6 Cole Hutson* - D - BU Terriers
#7 Ilya Protas - W/C - Windsor Spitfires
#8 Leon Muggli* - D - EV Zug
#9 Ryan Chesley - D - Minnesota Gophers
#10 Henrik Rybynski - W/C- Hershey Bears
HM: Eriks Mateiko* - W/C - Saint John Sea Dogs, Cam Allen - D - London Knights, Bogdan Trineyev - W - Hershey Bears
Starred players will be at the WJC. Definition of prospect is kind of "I know it when I see it" but in general I think for skaters you have to be 23 or younger and have less than 82 games of NHL experience. Hendrix Lapierre is left off my list for that reason but if he was on here I'd slot him in at #4 ahead of Parascak.
Some guys that might be on other Caps fans' lists but I don't really see an NHL future for: Alexander Suzdalev - W - SC Stingrays, Zac Funk - W - Hershey Bears, Pierrick Dube - W - Hershey Bears, Clay Stevenson - G - Hershey Bears.
Biggest risers this year:
Cristall, Protas, Parascak
Biggest fallers:
Suzdalev, Stevenson, Chesley, Lapierre
A surprisingly deep pool, Caps have done a great job in the second and third rounds recently and while none of their first rounders have been home-run successes there really aren't any misses there since Lucas Johansen in 2015. The Caps scouts really love the WHL, hate Finland, and I think more than any other team in the league don't care at all about skating as it's something they think is fixable. The group has a nice mix of potential scorers and grinders up front, and the lack of center depth is softened by having Strome, PLD, McMichael, and Lapierre all in the NHL aged 27 and younger. The big missing link is the lack of a defenseman projected to be a true 1st pair, PP1 type guy although if Hutson takes off in the way his brother did there may be a chance for that. There's also a lack of a "goalie of the future" but I think that's more a change in organizational philosophy than anything else and somewhat overrated by most prospect pool rankers.