The 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo is in the books, and the Caps have concluded a busy and transformative week with the addition of four fresh prospects for the organization, headlined by first-round choice Oliver Suvanto, a Finnish center selected with the 18th overall choice in the Draft on Friday night.
On Saturday – day two of the 2026 NHL Draft – the Caps started the day with four picks, the highest of which was pick No. 112, midway through the fourth round of the draft. The Caps also held pick 144 in the fifth round and a seventh-rounder at 208 overall.
Senior vice president and general manager Chris Patrick swung a swap to move the Caps up to 101 in the fourth round, dealing pick No. 112 and San Jose’s fifth-round choice (previously acquired) in the 2028 NHL Draft to Columbus to slide up those 11 slots.
With that fourth-round selection, the Caps chose forward Tyus Sparks from Spokane of the WHL.
“A little bit surprised, but definitely an honor and super excited,” was Sparks’ reaction to learning the Caps had moved up to choose him. “Great opportunity.
“Just hearing my name and seeing the looks on my family’s faces, it’s definitely an honor for sure.”
Sparks is a native of Meridian, Idaho who is listed at six feet even and 190 pounds. He split last season – his second in the WHL -- between Vancouver and Spokane, totaling 28 goals and 65 points in 69 games with 24 PIM. He added two goals and three points in a brief five-game playoff run as well.
“When I first got into hockey, my favorite team was the Boston Bruins and my favorite player was Patrice Bergeron,” says Sparks. “I used to watch them a lot, and he was a big inspiration for me.”
Listed as a center, Sparks is also capable of playing on the wing. Asked which players he models his game after, Sparks named a player currently plying his trade just south of Idaho in Salt Lake City.
“I think a little bit of Dylan Guenther,” he says of the Utah Mammoth right wing with a rocket of a shot. “Similar play style; he’s obviously a great skater with playmaking ability and has a great shot as well.”
At this early stage of his budding career, Sparks possesses one of the hardest shots in the 2026 Draft, and like first-round choice Oliver Suvanto, he is a competitive player with a relentless motor. Sparks goes to the net, scores dirty goals, and forechecks hard, but also features a heavy shot and is difficult to play against. Sparks’s one-timer – which is “NHL worthy” according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler – enables Spokane play him on the flank on the power play.
Sparks is aiming to become just the third native of Idaho ever to ascend to the NHL, and the first to do so since Potlach, Idaho’s Guyle Fielder logged nine regular season games and six playoff contests with Chicago, Detroit and Boston across four seasons in the 1950s.
Fielder, who passed away in February of this year at age 95, was a legend in the Western Hockey League in the days when it was a minor pro league, during the NHL’s Original Six era. He played 24 seasons of pro hockey, logging a minor league record of 1,430 games in the process. Fielder finished his pro career with 438 goals and 1,491 assists for 1,929 points. Only Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Jaromir Jagr have accrued more professional points.
Sparks could become the first Idaho native to play in the League in nearly seven decades.
“It’s an honor for sure, just being one of the few people from Idaho,” he says. “Just all the support from everyone there and my family, it’s amazing.”
Also like Suvanto, Sparks has a father who was a professional athlete, albeit in a different sport. Nate Sparks was a quarterback at Boise State who went on to play for the B.C. Lions of the Canadian Football League.
“He is a big part of my life and a big part of my career,” says Sparks of his dad. “He has helped me all throughout it. He has given me some great advice: ‘Just stick with it and play your game and try not to worry about other things and do whatever you can.’ It’s been great.”
With their fifth-round selection at 144, the Caps selected big blueliner Brian McFadden from Thayer Academy. McFadden is a right-handed defenseman who is listed at 6-foot-5 and 183 pounds. He is expected to attend Northeastern University in the fall of 2027, and he has signed with the Chicago Steel of the USHL, where he will play in 2026-27.
The Caps concluded their busy week with the selection of center Logan Stuart of the US National Team Development Program. Stuart is the son of longtime NHL defenseman Brad Stuart, who was the third overall choice in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks. With
Stuart is listed at 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds. He is a left-handed shot, a native of California who is committed to Denver University. With the USNTDP program’s U18 team last season, he totaled three goals and 15 points in 23 games. Stuart completed a preseason questionnaire for NHL’s Central Scouting, in which he described himself as a two-way forward and named Dylan Larkin as an NHL comparable.
Neither McFadden nor Stuart were in Buffalo for this weekend’s draft, but both are expected to join Suvanto and Sparks at the Caps’ summer development camp this week.
