Have they though? I know that's the often cited reputation of the team but is it actually true? Caps had to go out and sign or trade for Hagelin, Dowd, Hathaway, Panik, Sheary, Sprong, Dillon, Schultz, Chara, Jensen, Kempny, Ludqvist, Anderson. That's A LOT of middling players. I'm not even going to include the likes of Oshie or Eller on that list, as that caliber of player is legitimately difficult to draft and develop, especially for a very competitive team. Why do Caps keep going out and paying salary premium for bottom-6 forwards and average defensemen, if they are so good at drafting?
It's not like Caps have been stock piling blue chip prospects. Our prospect pool is typically ranked right at the bottom of the league. I'm not kidding. Of all the players we drafted since 2015, Siegenthlaler has had by far the greatest impact on the team to this point and he is a 3rd paring defensive d-man who we just gave away for pittance. Frankly, things were not much better before 2015. Caps struggle to produce impactful players past the 1st round.
It is what it is and when the team has the likes of Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuztnetsov, etc., it's not that big of a deal. Still, would be real nice not to have to go out and trade for say Dillon and have his $3.9m on the books for another four years.
