Draft Wrap

Washington’s 2010 NHL Entry Draft netted a total of five players, the team’s fewest since 1979 and tied for the fewest in franchise history. Although the ’10 draft may be short on quantity for the Capitals, the team believes it will prove to be a good one quality-wise.

Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov went to Washington in the first round (26th overall). One of the most commonly uttered draft day phrases is a variation of, “we couldn’t believe he was there when we picked.” In Kuznetsov’s case, that’s true. The Caps had him ranked 12th on their list, and they tried to make a deal to move up and grab Kuznetsov about 10 picks earlier.

Needless to say, they were pleased when he fell into their lap at No. 26.

As a 17-year-old last season, Kuznetsov played with and against men in the KHL. He has been to New York City for the last three summers to study English, and Caps’ general manager George McPhee says Kuznetsov was impressive in the interview process.

“It’s about drafting talent and ability,” says McPhee. “We drafted a heck of a talent. He’s a very, very impressive player. When we got to our pick, it was unanimous. We think he can play center ice. He’s a very, very dynamic player. He can skate, he thinks the game well, he moves the puck, he really attacks the net.”

Washington traded its 2010 second-rounder to Minnesota for Eric Belanger at the March 3 trade deadline. The Caps used their third-round choice (No. 86 overall) to take another Russian forward, Stanislav Galiev, who has been playing in North America for the last two seasons.

Galiev spent 2008-09 with Indiana of the USHL and played for Saint John in the QMJHL in 2009-10. Like Kuznetsov, he is a very gifted and skilled forward, and another player the Caps project as an eventual center. Some saw Galiev as a first-round talent.

The Caps have now chosen six Russian players in the first two rounds of the last seven Entry Drafts.

“It’s not about Russians,” says McPhee, it’s about taking the best player. We did a mock draft and that’s exactly who we thought would be sitting there when we were picking.”

While other teams are leery of choosing Russian players because of the fear that they won’t come to North America, the Caps – with one of the best Russian players ever in Alex Ovechkin – don’t have the same worries as other clubs.

“We just thought people are concerned about signing Russian players,” explains McPhee. “We just feel that what we’re doing with Ovechkin, that they’ll play in Washington. We can do some things that other teams are afraid to do.”

Owning two fifth-round picks, the Caps dished one of them (No. 146 overall) to the ick-impoverished Maple Leafs for the right to move up from No. 116 to No. 112 in the fourth round. With that choice, Washington selected German goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who helped lead London to the 2010 Memorial Cup championship by winning his last 12 straight games in the playoffs.

Jack Campbell of the U.S. Development Team was the first goaltender taken in the 2010 Entry Draft; he went to Dallas at No. 11 overall. That matched the highest any goaltender has been taken since the 2006 Draft. Washington liked Grubauer even better than Campbell.

To some, the Grubauer pick will seem curious. With the tandem of 22-year-olds Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth slated to share the District nets next season, and with 21-year-old prospect Braden Holtby waiting in the wings, Washington already boasted what is almost certainly the best stable of young goaltending talent in the entire NHL.

In Grubauer, the Caps have added another attractive asset to their system.

With their remaining fifth-round choice at No. 142 overall, the Caps chose center Caleb Herbert, a product of the Minnesota high school system. Herbert is expected to play in the USHL in 2010-11 before attending the University of Minnesota-Duluth in the fall of 2011.

Known as a speedy skater with competitive fire, Herbert was captain of his high school team.

With their final choice of the draft (sixth round, No. 176 overall), the Caps tabbed offensive defenseman Samuel Carrier from Lewiston of the QMJHL. With 42 points, Carrier finished in a tie for 17th in scoring among all Quebec League rearguards, one point behind Brandon Gormley who went at No. 13 to Phoenix. Carrier was tied for 18th in the Quebec League in goals.

During the draft decade of 2000-09, the Caps selected 90 players. Nearly a quarter (22 of 90) of those players came from the WHL. Washington took 16 of the first 48 players it drafted during the last decade from the Western League; it took just six of the last 42 players it drafted from that circuit. The Capitals did not draft a single player from the WHL in 2010, and they can make that claim for three of the last six drafts.

Only nine of the 90 players the Caps chose in the last decade came out of Russia. A year into the next decade, they’re almost a quarter of the way to matching that total. Only eight Russian players were drafted among the 210 chosen in the 2010 draft, so the Caps accounted for a quarter of that total.

Regardless of where the picks came from, the Caps have to be happy with the value they got. Washington had just one of the top 85 choices in the draft, yet it still managed to come away with three of the top 60 players in the draft according to the pre-draft rankings of The Hockey News and International scouting services. Washington’s top three fell within the top 64 in the pre-draft rankings of Red Line Report.

As always, the proof in this draft’s pudding for the Caps and the other 29 NHL teams will play out over the upcoming seasons and decades. But at least one reputable observer believes the Caps could start seeing some return on their 2010 Draft investment as soon as the fall of 2011, when he believes Kuznetsov will be NHL-ready.