Actually... some of what you're infering is pretty much true, however, a lot of depends on what happens with the CBA.
There's been much discussion here and on the caps message boards about what will happen with this roster post lockout and come salary cap time and so forth.
Here's what has been somewhat hashed out. More than likely, there will be some type of Cap, probably in the range of 30-40 million. Some of the contracts on the more expensive teams will get grandfathered in, some will not. I think this is probable largely due to there's a good block of teams (15-20) who aren't loaded with salary like Toronto, NY Rangers, Detroit, who will not allow some type of light cap, or no cap at all to pass. With that sort of Cap, there should be a good number of Free Agents on the market who are looking for jobs.
Looking at the Caps Roster now, they would probably have quite a large portion of any Cap to spend on adding a few key Veterans who could play important roles with a team. I'm not talking of getting the top tier players, but more the mid range players the Caps will need to fill out on their roster. There should be a pretty large market for the Caps to pick and choose who they want to fill that role.
Granted, their talent is still largely unproven, but there is a lot of it there. That's one thing most people will agree with. Down the line, from Semin, who has immense upside to be a potential 60-70 point person (possibly more) on a decent line, towards Fehr, Aulin, Fleischman, Klepis, etc... in the forward department. I'm not claiming all of them will pan out, just that some of them should be valuable contributers for this team.
And defensively, they do have two key parts that should play a solid role in their defensive corps, Morrisonn and Eminger both have loads of potential, with Morrisonn already having shown more of late. And Yonkman could be a potentially solid defenseman as well (if he can overcome the injury bug) Cutta's another guy with loads of raw skills who needs some seasoning.
In Goal, they have to be considered one of the top teams as far as prospect depth.
Either way.. they do have some potentially quality players already in the system. Add that to an owner who has said he will spend some money once the CBA is figured out (as it is idiocy to spend prior to that point) and a team who has significant numbers of draft picks, then it should be interesting.
As for what team they're going to try and build, GMGM has said he wants to build like the older Caps teams. Build from the goal out, i.e. restructure the defensive corps, through the draft and in quality free agent acquisitions. And once the defense is built, add timely scoring and hardworking forwards up front. Character is another key point. Taking players who have high character and demonstrate maturity and hard work are probably going to be players he looks at as well. The irony is, if not for Ovechkin being the clear favorite for the number 1 in this draft, I doubt GMGM would have taken anything other than a defenseman with his top pick. If 2-3 defensemen don't get drafted by the Caps in the top couple of rounds, I'll be shocked as well. They need an influx of defenseman that badly. Though... project forwards and centermen (especially from the WHL) are also typical McPhee choices.
All of that is based upon speculation however. The Caps are probably the one team that needs a lockout for a year more than anyone else. A whole year to let their younger players grow would help the team out immensely.