A Draft Hole Impacting the Washington-Pittsburgh Rivalry Years Hence?

Below you will find the order of selection for next weekend’s first four rounds of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, held in Ottawa. You will note from our highlighting in bold the wealth of selections the Capitals enjoy — six picks among the first 93 of the draft. This draft is universally regarded as distinctive for the quality of its depth; there will be solid NHL contributors selected liberally throughout rounds one, two, and three.
We would have you take particular note of the absence of any selections in the high-end range by your 2008 Eastern Conference champion. Their first pick arrives after 119 other 18-year-olds have been plucked.
The Penguins’ American League affiliate in Wilkes Barre-Scranton raced all the way to the Calder Cup finals this month, but unlike the Hershey Bears’ appearances there in 2006 and 2007, the junior Penguins aren’t believed to be chock full of promising young future talent for the parent club — that talent’s already in Pittsburgh. One reason they’re missing both high picks this year and high-end talent on the farm was February’s trade for Marian Hossa and Hal Gill as well as last year’s acquisition of geriatric Gary Roberts.
Penguins’ GM Ray Shero has his share of challenges this summer: 13 unrestricted and 4 restricted free agents to ink for next season. While it’s not impossible for teams to acquire young talent after round 3 of the NHL Entry Draft, the odds plummet precipitously. One’s thing’s for sure: 29 other NHL clubs will be helping themselves from this talent-rich draft before the Penguins do. As recent rebuilders, they’re ahead of the Capitals in both achievement and status, but that gap could close a healthy bit this summer.

 	ROUND 1	 	ROUND 2	 	ROUND 3	 	ROUND 4
1	Tampa Bay	31	Florida (from T.B.)	62	Tampa Bay	92	Los Angeles (from T.B.)
2	Los Angeles	32	Los Angeles	63	Los Angeles	93	Washington (from L.A.)
3	Atlanta	33	St. Louis (from ATL)	64	Atlanta	94	Atlanta
4	St. Louis	34	St. Louis	65	St. Louis	95	St. Louis
5	NY Islanders	35	Phoenix	66	NY Islanders	96	NY Islanders
6	Columbus	36	NY Islanders	67	Columbus	97	Columbus
7	Toronto	37	Columbus	68	Toronto	98	Toronto
8	Phoenix	38	Phoenix (from TOR)	69	Phoenix	99	Phoenix
9	Nashville (from FLA)	39	Phoenix	70	Toronto (from FLA)	100	Florida
10	Vancouver	40	Nashville (from FLA)	71	Anaheim (from VAN)	101	Los Angeles (from VAN)
11	Chicago	41	Vancouver	72	Chicago	102	Chicago
12	Anaheim (from EDM)	42	Ottawa (from CHI)	73	NY Islanders (from EDM-ANA)	103	Edmonton
13	Buffalo	43	Anaheim (from EDM)	74	Buffalo	104	Buffalo
14	Carolina	44	Buffalo	75	NY Rangers (from CAR)	105	Carolina
15	Nashville	45	Carolina	76	Nashville	106	Nashville
16	Boston	46	Nashville	77	Boston	107	Boston
17	Calgary	47	Boston	78	Calgary	108	Calgary
18	Ottawa	48	Los Angeles (from CGY)	79	Ottawa	109	Ottawa
19	Columbus (from COL)	49	Phoenix (from OTT)	80	Florida (from COL)	110	Colorado
20	NY Rangers	50	Colorado	81	Los Angeles (from NYR)	111	St. Louis (from NYR)
21	New Jersey	51	NY Rangers	82	New Jersey	112	New Jersey
22	Edmonton (from ANA)	52	New Jersey	83	Anaheim	113	Anaheim
23	Washington	53	NY Islanders (from ANA-EDM)	84	Washington	114	Calgary (from WSH-BOS)
24	Minnesota	54	Washington	85	Anaheim (from MIN)	115	Minnesota
25	Montreal	55	Minnesota	86	Montreal	116	Montreal
26	Buffalo (from S.J.)	56	Montreal	87	St. Louis (from S.J.)	117	San Jose
27	Philadelphia	57	Washington (from S.J.)	88	Los Angeles (from PHI)	118	Philadelphia
28	Los Angeles (from DAL)	58	Washington (from PHI)	89	Dallas	119	Ottawa (from DAL-T.B.)
29	Atlanta (from PIT)	59	Dallas	90	Phoenix (from PIT)	120	Pittsburgh
30	Detroit	60	Toronto (from PIT)	91	Detroit	121	Detroit
 	 	61	Los Angeles (from DET)	 	 	 	 

ENTRY DRAFT ORDER OF SELECTION NOTES
Round 1

• Pick 29 (Pittsburgh to Atlanta): Pittsburgh traded RW Colby Armstrong, C Erik Christensen, C Angelo Esposito and its 1st-round pick in the 2008 Entry Draft to Atlanta for RW Marian Hossa and RW Pascal Dupuis (Feb. 26, 2008).

Round 2

• Pick 57 (San Jose to Washington): San Jose traded Carolina’s 2nd-round pick in the 2007 Entry Draft (previously acquired) and San Jose’s 2nd-round pick in 2008 to Washington for Buffalo’s 1st-round pick in 2007 (previously acquired) (June 22, 2007).
• Pick 58 (Philadelphia to Washington): Washington traded Carolina’s 2nd-round pick in the 2007 Entry Draft (previously acquired) to Philadelphia for Nashville’s 3rd-round pick in 2007 (previously acquired) and Philadelphia’s 2nd-round pick in 2008 (June 23, 2007).

Round 3

• Pick 90 (Pittsburgh to Phoenix): Pittsburgh traded LW Dan Carcillo and its 3rd-round pick in the 2008 Entry Draft to Phoenix for RW Georges Laraque (Feb. 27, 2007).

Round 4

• Pick 93 (Los Angeles to Washington): Washington traded its 4th-round pick in the 2007 Entry Draft to Los Angeles for Los Angeles’ 6th-round pick in 2007 and 4th-round pick in 2008 (June 23, 2007).
• Pick 114 (Washington to Boston, conditional to Calgary):
  (1) Washington to Boston: Boston traded D Milan Jurcina to Washington for Washington’s 4th-round pick in the 2008 Entry Draft (Feb. 1, 2007).
  (2) Boston to Calgary, conditional: Calgary traded D Andrew Ference and RW Chuck Kobasew to Boston for D Brad Stuart, C Wayne Primeau and a conditional pick in the 2008 Entry Draft.