Capitals Development Camp Notebook Day 5: Ryan Leonard Dominates, Gets Chippy To Lead Team To Championship In 3v3 Tournament

ARLINGTON, V.A. — Ryan Leonard wasn't trying to weather the storm in the 3-on-3 tournament to close out Washington Capitals' development camp; he was the storm.

Over the course of the hour-long tourney, even when his team was getting a break from action, Leonard stayed on the ice, his game face on and the intensity cranked all the way up.

In the opening minutes of gameplay, Leonard got into a scuffle with free agent invite Oasiz Wiesblatt, sniped home a rocket of a shot and ran goaltender Collin MacKenzie in the crease.

He ended up with four goals as he led team white, which consisted of Ilya Protas, Terik Parsacak, Eric Charpentier, Nikita Nikora and Nicolas Kempf, to lead his team to the Future Caps Cup.

For Leonard, he was just trying to lead by example and show the Capitals what he can do.

"It was great," Leonard said, adding, "You can (show) the young guys how to really set the tone for the practice and not really take a rep off because everyone here's as a top prospect, you want to just push each other to make each other better but set the standard for the organization."

The 19-year-old also had great things to say about Parascak, Washington's first-round pick in this year's draft.

"Very, very good, I like the way he plays," Leonard said.

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Other standouts in the tournament included Kempf, who was sharp between the pipes and moved quickly, along with Team Grey's line of Andrew Cristall, Haakon Hanelt and Joaquim Lemay. All three showed off their skating and hands and made a lot happen on the ice, but ultimately, fell in semifinals to the light blue team, which had standouts Ryan Chesley and Cole Hutson.

Also on team light blue, Ludwig Persson stood out with his poise, patience and playmaking, while 2024 fifth-rounder Petr Sikora was also making noise with his hard-hitting style of play, aggressiveness on the forecheck and relentless motor.

Overall, it was a solid ending to a busy camp.