Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee, in speaking of his team’s 24th selection in the NHL Draft this weekend in Montreal, said, “It’s going to be an even bigger challenge this year to hit one out of the park, but we’re going to try to do it.”
This year’s 24th is the latest that the team has selected in nearly a decade, but McGee said that he expects to stay with his basic tenet of going after the very best talent available to the team regardless of position.
“If you are doing things right, you are always taking the best player,” explained the general manager, adding that it is better to acquire a left winger who can play than a right defenseman who is not going to play.
“I don’t think the philosophy changes,” he continued. “We want to draft the best players that we can …. It is more of a challenge now, when you are lower in the draft, to find players. We think we’ve been drafting pretty darn well the last four or five years, and we would like to keep that going. We thought that we did well getting (Anton) Gustafsson and (John) Carlson in the first round."
Does McPhee believe that the Capitals, with the 24th pick, can leave this draft with a future NHL player? “We still believe that there are a couple of players that, if we can get our hands on them, would have the upside that we are looking for," he expressed. "It is a good draft for defensemen, (and there are) some decent centers available as well. That’s what we see at this point, and we’ll see what develops.”
"The top two or three rated players are better than the rest" theorized the hockey exec, who added, “Then there is a group of about eleven players that are pretty darn good players, after which it levels off. And it isn’t quite as strong from the mid-point of the first round on.”
Making the selection job easier for teams today, including the Capitals, is the fact that so much information is easily accessible.
“It is a far different business than fifteen years ago,” said McPhee. “There are better ways of measuring players, their fitness levels and their capabilities going forward in terms of their physical capabilities. There is psychological testing and so on.
“But there are players from all over now that we have to keep an eye on, and the good news is that a lot of games are televised. That wasn’t available ten or fifteen years ago so there would be times when you would miss players. It was really hard to see them. You don’t miss them anymore. If you want to see a player, you can get to a tournament. You can watch them on television. You can watch them on tape. … I think that has really improved scouting for most teams.”
McPhee also does not discount acquiring veteran talent with long-term deals. “You can do long-term deals as long as you do the right deal with the right player," he said. "And that’s the key in the business now. We have options. We’re not locked into too many long-term deals which is nice. We will do long-term deals for the right people, but you have to have some options.”
But in turning to young talent, McPhee is quick recognize the team’s affiliate Hershey Bears. “ We think that we have a number of guys that can come up from Hershey and help out," he explained. "I believe there are some guys that can come up and make our team on a full-time basis. That will be determined in training camp obviously, but we’ve done a pretty good job there. You need these guys who can come up, contribute and help us win – so we’ll keep leaning on Hershey and promoting the kids that are ready to go.”
One of McPhee’s theories is that young players should not sit on the bench – that the way develop their talent is to put them out on the ice. So whether it is with the Capitals or the affiliate Hershey, he wants players actually playing and given every opportunity to learn and improve. And in the end, he believes this rewards both the Capitals and the individual players.
The Capitals’ additional draft picks this weekend are 55th, 85th, 115th, 144th, 174th and 204th.
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