Washington Capitals: 2 Underrated Players To Watch

The NHL has so many underrated players who deserve far more recognition. In this segment, we will be discussing two from every team in the league. Their overall roles and abilities may differ, but they all share the common theme that they are not as respected as they ought to be.

For full transparency, two teams will be randomly picked from a wheel each day. The winners will then be discussed.

Today's first piece will be on the Washington Capitals. Fans naturally think of players like Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson first when focusing on the Capitals. Although these two players are not stars like them, they each are still nice components to the team.

Garnet Hathaway RW: Garnet Hathaway is a solid bottom-six forward in this league. In 56 games this past season, he scored six goals and recorded 18 points. That's pretty decent production from a fourth-liner and shows that he can provide notable depth scoring. Yet, Hathaway's tenacity and strong degree of physicality is what makes him thrive in this league. He provides more bite to Washington's lineup, which in turn, makes them harder to play against.

Daniel Sprong RW: Daniel Sprong proved this season that he is meant to play in the NHL. In 42 games, he scored 13 goals and recorded 20 points. This came after him playing just eight NHL games the previous season with the Anaheim Ducks. Opposing hockey fans may not realize that Sprong is starting to find his scoring touch at the NHL level. He also only has a cap hit of $725,000, so if he continues to score at this pace, he is a complete steal for the Caps.