The cousins thought it would be a fine idea to embark on an
occasional summer series asking the questions, “what if today didn’t happen the
way it happened back then?” In other
words, what might have happened had a transaction on this or that date not taken
place? Of course, the cousins having an
idea pretty much ends there. They always
seem to be otherwise occupied when it comes to actually putting the idea to
paper. Be that as it may, it’s not a bad
way to while away the summer. We’ll get
started on this with perhaps one of the most famous dates in Capitals history,
July 11th.
No, it’s not going to be a retrospective on the Capitals
career of defenseman Marc Chorney, who was signed by the Caps on this date in
1984. Chorney never played for the Caps (unlike his son, Taylor, who does),
spending his last season in pro hockey skating with the Binghamton Whalers in
the AHL. It would be 17 years before the
Caps pulled the trigger on another deal on this date, and it was the blockbustiest of
blockbusters.
Less than three months removed from losing a first round
playoff series to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games, the Caps executed a deal that brought one of the Penguins’ key elements – Jaromir Jagr
– to Washington along with defenseman Frantisek Kucera in exchange for
prospects Kris Beech, Ross Lupaschuk, Michal Sivek and future considerations
(another term for “cash”).
Jagr’s arrival in Washington was met with great joy and
anticipation, but his departure less than three seasons later was met with
mutters of “good riddance.” We won’t go
back over that difficult history, but rather wonder what might have happened if
the summer of 2001 had not been as eventful.
The rest of that summer saw a few low-wattage deals – the acquisition of
the Ferraro twins Peter (free agent) and Chris (in trade from New Jersey), and claiming
Glen Metropolit off waivers from Tampa Bay.
The lack of action on the roster could not cover up a
disturbing fact. The Caps had not won a
playoff series since winning the Eastern Conference final against the Buffalo
Sabres in 1998 to go to the Stanley Cup final, missing the playoffs entirely in
1998-1999 and then losing first-round matchups to the Penguins in each of the
next two seasons. And, they were getting
old. Ten of the 19 players to take the
ice in the home opener of the 2001-2002 season against the New Jersey Devils were past the age of 30;
three of them – Adam Oates, Joe Reekie, and Sylvain Cote – were at or past the
age of 35.
The Caps did have some youth in the lineup, though. Kris Beech won a spot on the roster after playing
four games with the big club the previous season. Beech slotted in the third line center spot
behind Oates and Trevor Linden. At the
age of 20, only Brian Sutherby was younger in that lineup to open the 2001-2002
season.
For the Caps, experience was not helping, nor was youth,
such as it was, providing a spark. The
team dropped its first half dozen games of the season, the last five of them on
the road, to dig themselves an early hole.
By the time October ended, a month in which the Caps played nine of 12
games on the road, they were 2-9-1-0 (ties still being a result that
season). The woes were not limited to
their on-ice performance, either. Linden, who spent nine and a half seasons in Vancouver before being
traded to the New York Islanders (followed by a stint in Montreal before coming
to Washington), never seemed to find his game with the Caps, managing only four
goals and three assists in 28 games before he was traded in November back to
the Canucks with a second-round draft pick for a first and a third round draft
pick. The Caps were 2-13-1-0 when the
trade was made.
It hardly got better. The Caps struggled to score as teams
loaded up on defending top goal-scorer Peter Bondra, whose goal scoring
plummeted after the Caps traded center Adam Oates to the Philadelphia Flyers
late in the season for goaltender Maxime Ouellet and three draft picks. He finished with 32 goals, but no other
Capital forward finished with as many as 20.
The team finished the year with just 27 wins and 66 points, finishing 27th
in the league standings and getting a leg up on its rebuild with the fourth
overall draft pick in the June entry draft.
The fourth overall draft pick could have been predicted
given the club’s recent history. In each
of the previous four drafts, the first four under general manager George
McPhee, the club’s first selection came from the Western Hockey League in
Canadian junior (Jomar Cruz in 1998, Beech in 1999, Sutherby in 2000, and
Nathan Paetsch in 2001). With the first
three picks going to Columbus (Rick Nash), Atlanta (Kari Lehtonen), and Florida
(Jay Bouwmeester), the Caps had their pick from a variety of positions. Joni Pitkanen and Ryan Whitney were available
among defensemen. Pierre-Marc Bouchard
and Eric Nystrom were available among forwards.
The Caps, instead, once more went to the WHL well, taking Scottie
Upshall from Kamloops in the WHL with the fourth overall pick (in reality, he
went sixth to Nashville in that draft).
Having the fourth-overall draft pick in this draft instead
of their own 12th overall pick they actually did have in that draft
(Steve Eminger was selected), the Caps did not pull the trigger on the deal
with the Dallas Stars on June 12th that netted them the 13th
overall pick for a first (from Philadelphia in the Oates deal) and second round
pick in this draft and a sixth rounder in 2003). In other words, they did not pick Alexander
Semin. They kept their 26th
overall pick and took Jarret Stoll (who was actually taken 36th
overall by Edmonton). In between, with
the 17th overall pick (from Vancouver in the Linden trade),
Washington selected Boyd Gordon (as they actually did in 2002).
The 2001-2002 season was a walk in the park compared to the
2002-2003 season, one in which the Caps got older and slid further in the
standings. They had a worse start than
in the previous season, going winless in their first ten games, eight of those
games played on the road. They held
their sell-off a year earlier than they did in real time, trading Peter Bondra
to Anaheim (with a third round pick for the Mighty Ducks’ first rounder in
2003), Calle Johansson to Detroit (for a second round pick in the 2003 draft),
and Michael Nylander to Ottawa (for a second round pick in the 2003 draft).
Having loaded up on second round draft picks in the 2003
entry draft the Caps, pushed to the third overall pick in the first round when
Columbus won the draft lottery, selected Nikolai Zherdev, the top-ranked
European skater in the Central Scouting amateur rankings (Columbus selected
Nathan Horton with the first overall pick, while Carolina took Eric Staal with
the next pick). With the 28th
overall pick obtained from Anaheim in the Bondra trade, the Caps took Corey
Perry of the London Knights.
The Caps would finish out of the running for a playoff spot
in the 2003-2004 season, although having
bottomed out the season before, they would not win the 2004 draft lottery that
would have enabled them to draft Alex Ovechkin first overall. They would, however, have another top-ten
pick, this time taking Alexandre Picard out of Lewiston in the QMJHL.
There would be no 2004-2005 season, the NHL going dark for
the entire season due to a lockout. It
would make for an interesting 2005 draft, what with there being no
standings-based lottery to hold and the fact that the prize amateur of this
generation – Sidney Crosby – awaited.
The NHL devised a lottery that gave, in theory, all 30 teams a chance at
the number one overall pick. Each of the
30 teams would be granted three balls in the lottery barrel. For each playoff appearance in 2002, 2003,
and 2004, a team would lose a ball to a maximum of two. The Caps, having missed the postseason in
each of those seasons, did not lose a ball.
Then teams with the first overall pick in any of the previous four
drafts – 2001, 2002, 2003, or 2004 – would lose a ball to a maximum of
two. The Caps did not have a
first-overall pick in any of those drafts.
The Caps would go into that draft as one of five teams with three balls
in the barrel – Buffalo, Columbus, Pittsburgh, and the New York Rangers being the
others.
The Capitals, not having made the trade for Jaromir Jagr in
2001, fell on hard times quickly, more quickly than they did having made that
trade. In doing so, it accelerated their
decision to implement a rebuild, although it would happen a bit more gradually
than it would in real time. In this
scenario, the Caps do not get Alex Ovechkin or Mike Green, among others, and in
their place get Scottie Upshall, Jarret Stoll, Boyd Gordon, Corey Perry, Nikolai
Zherdev, and Alexandre Picard. Given the
uneven levels of performance over the careers of those players, it would be
hard to see a way where the Caps would be able to replicate the success they
had in the post-2004-2005 lockout.
Unless one of those three balls in the lottery barrel was
picked in 2005.
Photo: Mitchell Layton/Getty Images