These guys have made some great picks. Sure, they have had a lot of "can't miss" high picks, but they've made some very good picks, and seem to have had just an astounding amount of first rounders.
They didn't have one in 2001 but they still managed to talented D-men Nathan Paetsch in the second and Johnny Oduya in the 7th.
2002 they had three first round picks between 12 and 17 and came out pretty good with three guys who are all on NHL rosters (two of them on Washigtong) all with 300+NHL games: Steve Eminger, Alex Semin and Boyd Gordon. 2003 wasn't a great draft for them surprisingly since it was so deep, but taking Eric Fehr 18th was a good move. 2004 they drafted the franchise savious, Alex Ovechkin, first overall. They again had three first round picks and also took Jeff Schultz and Mike Green at 27 and 29 respectively. Chris Borque and Sami Lepisto were decent mid round picks that year.
2005 was kind of a hick-up with towering d-men Sasha Pokuluk and Joe Finley not coming to fruition...yet. The Caps still managed to take uber-talent Tim Kennedy in the 6th though, so as far as grading their ability goes this year is a wash.
2006 was chalk full of talent for the Caps. Nik Backstrom was a good pick at 4th overall. Their pair of starting goalies was taken 23 and 32 that year. They also had a couple good picks in the second round, Keith Seabrook and Francois Bouchard, as well as Oskar Osala who continuously flirts with NHL rosters. Matthieu Perrault taken late that year has 8 points in 17 games for the Caps this season.
2007's first round pick of Karl Alzner at 5th overall has blossomed in to a terrific NHL shut down d-man who is still miles away from his peak potential and developing nicely. His young caps blue line coutnerpart John Carlson was just a kid out of US High School league when the Caps drafted him late in the first round the next year...now, he's a berugonning Top 2 dman. Stefan DellaRovere and Braden Holtby have both cracked NHL rosters this year too.
Marcus Johanses from 2009 is already in the show, and the third rounder that year, Cody Eakin, won't be too far off talent wise; he may have a hard time cracking Washingtons deep forward core. 2010s Evgeny Kuznetsov and Stanislav Galiev are improving every game and Phillipe Grubauer taken in the fifth fresh off a Memorial Cup win is having a solid year in Kingston
The Caps get an A. They've had some gifts, but they're ratio of draft pick to NHLer is one of the best.
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