2014 NHL Draft: Washington Capitals draft review

[HF Article]

 

After missing the playoffs in the 2013-14 season the Washington Capitals parted ways with head coach Adam Oates and general manager George McPhee. In his place, former assistant GM Brian McClellan stepped up to the podium at the 2014 NHL Draft.


Washington did very little dealings in order to get additional assets, and held six picks over the course of the seven round draft. With wingers being an area of need for the Capitals system, the organization used five of its six picks on players capable of playing wing. They continued the trend of drafting raw, average sized, highly skilled players.… read more



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[Devil Dancer]

The more I think about it, the more absurd that Nathan Walker pick is. I'm OK with Vrana, but there's every indication they could have had both Vanecek and Walker much later in the draft than they were taken.

 

[fedfed]

The more I think about it, the more absurd that Nathan Walker pick is. I'm OK with Vrana, but there's every indication they could have had both Vanecek and Walker much later in the draft than they were taken.

I probably agree with Vanecek, but Walker is much better than options late in the third regardless of whether he'd go where.

 

[SimplySensational]

I think both picks are signs of a scouting staff being given free reign.

McPhee admitted to passing on Holtby with two picks despite him being the scouts choice before picking him in the 4th.

 

[Marshall]

Errors upon errors in the second paragraph.

 

[Marshall]

The more I think about it, the more absurd that Nathan Walker pick is. I'm OK with Vrana, but there's every indication they could have had both Vanecek and Walker much later in the draft than they were taken.

What indications were there, other than draft guides?

 

[txpd]

can we at least spell the GM's name right?

 

[Hivemind]

The most infuriating part of the Walker pick, imo, is that they could have had him in the 7th last year. He'd already attended a dev camp, so they'd already seen him up close by that point. I get that he developed over the course of those seasons, but shifting between not being willing to gamble on him in the 7th and moving up to take him in the 3rd is ridiculous.

 

[Carlzner]

The most infuriating part of the Walker pick, imo, is that they could have had him in the 7th last year. He'd already attended a dev camp, so they'd already seen him up close by that point. I get that he developed over the course of those seasons, but shifting between not being willing to gamble on him in the 7th and moving up to take him in the 3rd is ridiculous.

He attended the 2013 dev camp, not the 2012 one.

I really don't see why it's a huge problem. This draft was known to be weak after the 2nd round for almost the entire season. Walker has AHL experience at a very young age and played well with our prospects and players in the 2013 pre-season. (Remember his pass to a Wilson tap in?) For all we know, someone else was planning to pick him right around that area, hence the trade up.

 

[Hivemind]

He attended the 2013 dev camp, not the 2012 one.

He attended both.
http://www.russianmachineneverbreak...ustralian-prospect-nathan-walker-to-dev-camp/

 

[Devil Dancer]

The picks aren't huge problems in and of themselves, but they were poor asset management, IMO. Considering the team's poor asset management at the draft and the team's poor cap management on July 1 (Orpik), and this management team isn't off to a great start. I hope they do better in the future.

 

[Langway]

In a weaker draft I guess it's not as big of a deal to be so aggressive on their targets. Then again that's also how teams swing big and miss. I find it extremely hard to believe that even in a weak draft year that there won't be NHL players at center and defense to come out of this draft outside of the top-end. It's a matter of finding them and particularly at center they haven't done a very good job of it. You can just tell post-draft how amped up Mahoney gets about the whole process but hopefully he'll learn to become a little more even-keeled if he continues to have free reign to move around. They really wanted to move up for Kuznetsov as well and were rewarded by being patient.

I'll probably never really like the logic behind the Vanecek move. I could see it if he were a higher quality prospect than Grubauer but I don't think he's shown that. While there may have been an organizational need to add another one to the system I don't think he was particularly close to the top trio that ran off the board early in the second causing their need to move up. All things considered it's hard to be enthused by a pick that's likely four years away likely as more of a back-up option or 1b when there were still some quality skaters available. And to move up in the process? Far worse of a move than the trade up for Walker IMO.