The Caps left the first round of what is widely regarded as the deepest draft in some time having made two drafts pick. The team traded up from 23rd to draft Anton Gustafsson with the 21st pick and traded Steve Eminger and a pick to Philly for the 27th pick, which they used to draft John Carlson.Both draftees have ties to the Caps - Gustafsson, of course, as the son of a Caps legend, and Carlson as a player headed to London, Ontario to be coached by Dale Hunter as a member of the OHL Knights.
Anyway, here's a pre-draft info dump on the pair, with more to follow (profiles courtesy TSN.ca):
Gustafsson
9 comments:
Good job on the live blog tonight. Hope you folks do something similiar in July @ Kettler. The mainstream media (msm) doesn't really do proper justice to hockey, though they are improving with their coverage.
I think you have to give McPhee a lot of credit for getting a good return on players who don't seem to have much of a future in Washington: a second rounder (that was later spun to Montreal for Huet) for Sutherby and Eminger for the 27th overall pick.
turned out to be a great first day for the Caps, if a little late; I wasnt thrilled with the baby Gus pick, but shedding a mil and picking up a solid D prospect more than made up for it.
@ bigonetimer,
I felt the same way, but the more I think about Gustafsson, the more I like it. The only thing that prevented him from being slotted around 21 (or higher) was the health issue and McPhee, Mahoney and the others don't seem like the type to pick someone like that unless they're 100% sure the player has/will recover[ed]. If that's the case, I think a fairly big two-way center with Gustafsson's talent is a great pick for the Caps at that point
I made the mistake of going to ESPN to see what they had to say. Apparently they are too lazy to figure out that Carlson isn't headed to UMass anymore but to London, ON.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhldraft/draft/tracker/round?round=1&draftyear=2008
i passed out and didnt see the carlson pick. i must admit i am dissapointed to see Eminger go, but Carlson was someone i was hoping they would pick up.
good for GMGM for having some balls
"...we need to talk to him about scoring more goals. He seems to want to hit more than score."
-GMGM
that's not the Bengt Gustafsson I remember but dmg, if it's really the case then I'm sure I'll warm up to the kid!
I can't believe I am going to actually tune in to Day 2 of an NHL draft
/arms self with remote and coffee
@Scott,
ESPN is to hockey what Naomi Campbell is to self control. ESPN is only good for checking to see if Toyna Harding clubbed Tiger in the knee (she did, check is in the mail).
If we could only get the NHL Network to show its own draft when it occurs (at least, it wasn't happening on the West Coast).
Sorry to see Eminger go. He made some pretty passes on a few breakaways that I can remember. Too bad.
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