Tag Archives: NHL Draft

And So It Goes

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We agreed to trade a young goaltender to Colorado for a first round and a second round pick. See release here.

I think this is a better deal for us than losing the player to the KHL. The player wanted assurances that we couldn’t make to him. I am disappointed in the overall optics here but it is always better to take the high road and we wish the player well with his new team. Go Caps!

NHL Draft is Done

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We are happy we added to our young player ranks. Our scouts believe we have chosen wisely. We have many young prospects ready to play in the NHL from Hershey, and now we may have added some new talent to take their places one day, to be developed wisely. A circle of life motif.

When you are successful like we have been of late in the regular season, you pick late in the draft. But I am confident that we have taken a player or two who can play in the NHL one day.

We have more work to do this off season. We will be smart but tough minded on what we need to do to improve. Thank you. Go Caps!

No Rest for the Weary

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And now on to the NHL draft.

Dick Patrick and George Mcphee and staff are all in LA. I am here in DC.

We believe in the quality of this draft. We also have so many young and promising prospects in our system that we are running out of opportunities to play new, young players.

This is the situation we wanted to create. You can never have too many good young prospects, but it does allow you some freedom to make deals.We seek to always improve our team. Draft. Trades. Free agency.

Wish us well. Go Caps.

Draft Concludes

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We had a productive draft. I bet at least two of the kids drafted can make our team or play in the NHL. If that happens, we can all be happy.
 
We still have work to do. There weren’t many trades made at the drafting tables this year. Perhaps now we all go to work in free agency and those moves will open up personnel needs and create some dynamism in the league?
 
Don’t expect us to make any big long term expensive signings though in free agency. We have many core young players to reward and keep in the fold. We are up near the cap max now. We have some wiggle room but I am hopeful – as noted before - that we add to the team via internal promotion, trades, deadline trades and some smaller free agent signings.
 
Wish us luck. We have work left to do. Click here to read a good article that summarizes the draft.

George Is Usually Tight-Lipped

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George is usually tight-lipped about developments at the draft. I am surprised he is being so open and transparent. At 5:00 pm last night, I talked to him on the phone and asked him how it was going. He told me that barring a last minute trade that included the pick that if we had the opportunity at number 24, we would draft Marcus Johansson. And sure enough, that is what we did. So the scouts were all in agreement as was the staff and our GM so I have to feel good about the pick.
 
George and staff believe he is strong on his skates; a well rounded two way center with very good hockey sense; plays D; and has skill and will get even more strength. So in the last three drafts we have taken 3 Swedish centers. The Swedes seem to be all of the rage in the NHL now with 7 drafted in the first round yesterday.
 

Exciting Times This Weekend

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Here’s to hoping that George McPhee and staff have a productive weekend in Montreal. Click here for a very good article about the team and its desires this weekend at the draft.
 
We believe we have a very good team but need to improve to become an elite team. The way that we will improve mostly is that our core group of young players will mature, gain experience and learn what it takes and the price to pay to compete and win a Stanley Cup. We are fortunate that our core group is growing and includes players such as reigning league two-time MVP Alex Ovechkin, Alexander  Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, Brooks Laich, our two young goaltenders; and perhaps John Carlson, Karl Alzner and Anton Gustafsson. That is a great group to build around and that group is a very young core of players. We also have several good young players who have tasted great success in Hershey who will push people for minutes in the NHL. This internal competition should raise the state of play of everyone on the team.
 

Catching Up

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I am back from Las Vegas, tanned but not relaxed. I am tired and jet lagged and glad to be home with my family safe and sound.
 
This week is being spent in preparation for the amateur draft. Our scouts work all year long for this one weekend and they are all in and getting ready for the festivities in Montreal. I won’t be attending the event this year but will have a good handle on what George and Ross hope to get done.
 

How I Have Spent My Summer Vacation So Far

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Summer is the time to regroup and to rest but so far this summer has been one of burning the midnight oil.

So far we have:

  • Been to Toronto to the NHL Awards ceremonies. Alex swept the awards including the MVP and our coach picked up the NHL Coach of the Year award;
  • Came back to DC and were feted by the Mayor. Alex got the keys to the city. We saw our fans at an event and we had a big party celebrating the awards;
  • Went to the NHL draft and picked two players in the first round;
  • Had a busy off season signing Jose Theodore as a free agent and re-signing Mike Green, Brooks Laich, Sergei Fedorov, Matt Bradley, Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon and just about everyone else on our slate. We await the outcome of arbitration with just one player and we will be done with a very busy off season. Let us NOT forget that during the season we re-signed Alex Semin, Alex Ovechkin and Donald Brashear to extensions as well;
  • Held a fabulous Fan Fest at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. Thank you to all that attended;
  • Completed a new film called “Kicking It” which went into theaters;
  • Hosted the US based Homeless World Cup in DC where we met more than 100 homeless people. We embraced them; housed them at George Washington University; fed them well via volunteerism from many of the Capitals’ great sponsors; took them to see “Kicking It”; took them to the DC United vs. LA Galaxy game; and chose a team to send to Australia for the Homeless World Cup in December;
  • Launched a new business called SnagFilms which we talked about last week. SnagFilms is off to a great start and I encourage you to go snag a film widget or go watch a film online via a widget. Check out SnagFilms.com daily :-) ;
  • SnagFilms acquired indieWIRE, the leading online site for news and information on independent films. Check out indieWIRE.com for all of the latest on independent films and what is happening at film festivals.

Wow – what a busy summer already. I am hopeful that in August the pace will slow down and my family and I can relax a bit more.

Last Night’s Draft Moves

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We drafted a defensively responsible, big, edgy center that happens to be the son of one of our former star players and a big, rugged, talented defenseman who will mentor under Dale Hunter next season. We used some assets to trade up to claim these two prospects and we will develop them through our systems and believe they will both play in the NHL in two to three years time.

We have used the most first round picks of any team in the NHL now over the last seven years. This is a big part of our overall strategy to use the draft to feed our system and add depth to the team. We always want players who are young to be pushing players that are coming off of contract. We always want to have lots of assets developing as it gives us “optionality” for trades in the future as well.

I will personally miss Steve Eminger and thank him for his contributions to our team.