Is There A Window Open?

Because there is a Draft. Ha!

The Washington Capitals enter this draft with picks late in each round. But they have picks in all seven rounds. The Caps pick 24th in the first round, if they should use it or trade it remains to be seen.

It is highly unlikely that the Capitals would trade their first round pick as they have used their first round picks more than any other team in the past eight years. They have plucked 15 first round picks in that time. The Caps have used the first round picks to build a team from scratch. So far, the results have been good for the organization.

One only has to look at the Caps' development tree. The South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL and the Hershey Bears of the AHL are the affiliates of the Capitals. Both have won their respective league championships. Proof that the organization is going in the right direction.

Many of the mock drafts have the Capitals picking a winger (provided there are no moves in picks). That winger is Landon Ferraro, son of Ray Ferraro. Landon is a speedy and smart player on the short side (5'11", 165 lbs.). It not a given that Ferraro will be drafted by Caps, being so far down on the list.

The Caps picks for the '09 Draft are as follows:

Round 1: 24th pick
Round 2: 55th pick
Round 3: 85th pick
Round 4: 115th pick
Round 5: 144th pick
Round 6: 174th pick
Round 7: 204th pick

Notable 24th overall picks:
'05 T.J. Oshie (STL)
'03 Mike Richards (PHI)
'01 Lukas Krajicek (FLA)
'96 Daniel Briere (PHX)
'85 Sean Burke (NJ, 2nd rd.)

Capitals' unrestricted free agents*: Donald Brashear, Sergei Fedorov, Viktor Kozlov, Alex Giroux**, Graham Mink**, Bryan Helmer**, Brent Johnson

Restricted free agents*: Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon, Chris Bourque**, Steve Pinizzotto**, Milan Jurcina, Shaone Morrisonn, Jeff Schultz, Sami Lepisto**

First round of the NHL '09 Entry Draft will be on Versus Network this Friday night (6/27) at 7 pm. Following rounds will be on Saturday and can be watched on the NHL Network throughout the day. This year's draft will be in Montreal.

*-as of 10 AM, 6/23/09
**-played majority of the season for Hershey