History, Part Deux

Having taken a look back at the Caps' history in the draft under this administration (from 1997 forward), we thought we'd compare that to another club, one which has something of a reputation for finding gold nuggets in later rounds -- the Detroit Red Wings. So, here's the tale of that tape...


There are some other things to note in the comparison:

-- The Wings have had only one player drafted in the last five drafts who has at least one full season's worth of experience (Johan Franzen, 2004 -- 221 games). The Caps have four -- Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, and Jeff Schultz. All four players for the Caps are first round picks. The Wings have had only two first round draft picks over those five years (Brendan Smith, Jakub Kindl).

-- The Wings do have more success in picking talent in later rounds. After the second round, the Wings have had 74 picks. 15 have NHL experience, and four have at least one full season's worth (Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Henrik Zetterberg, and Pavel Datsyuk). By way of comparison, the Caps have had 70 picks after the second round, nine of whom have some NHL experience. Only one -- John Oduya -- has more than a full season's worth of games under his belt, none of them with Washington.

-- Three Red Wing picks found their way into the Caps' organization (Petr Sykora, Tomas Fleischmann, and Quintin Laing).

-- In terms of the source of amateur talent, the Red Wings do, in fact, rely on sources outside North America to a greater extent than the Caps. About half of the Wings' picks hail from outside North America, about a third of the Caps' picks.

-- Frankly, we are surprised (pleasantly so) that the Caps compete with the Red Wings in the draft to the extent they do, given Detroit's reputation in this area, at least at a high-level. However, the Red Wings have lacked high picks over the last decade (16 first or second round picks since 1997, versus 32 for Washington).

One of the sturdy pillars of the game plan for the Caps to sustain a competitive edge is the draft. That has been the aim since the lockout. As we go forward toward Friday night, it bears remembering that this is not an easy task -- trying to project how 18-year old young men might perform three, five, ten years from now. And even the best have an uneven record in performing this task.