Courtesy: Washington Capitals Official Facebook Page
It can sometimes be hard as sports fans to curtail excitement when offseason activities begin and new faces or faces of the future start arriving at the team facility.
While the NHL Draft has provided some superstars a quick transition into the professional ranks, i.e. Alexander Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, most players selected go through a grooming period that allows them to fully develop before taking the ice on the big stage.
Looking to what the Washington Capitals accomplished in the draft, the franchise found a way to grab three players that could contribute to the roster within the next two-three years. Read that last part very carefully though… it is something that gets lost in translation when fresh meat like 18-year-old hockey players are brought into the slaughterhouse that is the NHL.
Jakub Vrana and Vitek Vanecek address two positions of need for the Capitals – forward (has the ability to play center and wing) and goaltender. Vrana will hopefully become the type of player that Nicklas Backstrom is as a center – a playmaker who looks to create opportunities for his teammates, yet finds his own opportunities in the slot. Vanecek is hopefully another diamond in the rough between the pipes, but isn’t a short-term fix.
Notice the key word “hopefully” in both assessments of the selections… that is because that’s what teams get when they bring in rookies and young athletes. There is no guarantee the plan will come to fruition and work out the way it is supposed to. Untapped potential is simply that and wishing that things could be different for one player is something a desperate franchise has to rely on.
Think about how long it took Evgeny Kusnetsov to make it to D.C.
No matter the potential or skillset of an athlete, sometimes they are simply not ready or overwhelmed.
That is where head coach Barry Trotz comes in. It is his responsibility to assemble a staff and to coordinate with his minor league affiliates about player development and how they can fit into his rotation in the immediate or distant future. By selecting guys like Vrana and Vanecek, Washington is showing they know where they must improve over the next several years, but they did miss out on what is their biggest struggle.
Yes, the Capitals didn’t select a defenseman with their first three selections – Nathan Walker of AHL affiliate Hershey is a forward and was selected 89th overall as the team’s third pick – but the back end is in more need of an immediate surgery than relying on inexperienced youth to fix the issue. That is why new general manager Brian MacLellan likely stayed away. If anywhere, free agency is the market to bolster this struggling unit. How much money can be thrown around and if the right talent is there are two totally different stories.
That being said, the 2014 NHL Draft was a successful one for the Capitals. While there are no immediate fixes for the top club, Washington grabbed a play-making forward, a goaltender and a goal-scorer in their first three picks. They missed on that potential defensive stalwart, but players, like money, do not grow on trees.
