Washington Capitals: Top 10 best NHL Draft picks in team history

#9 Steve Konowalchuk

Steve Konowalchuk was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the third round at 58th overall in 1991. He was called up in the 1991-92 season appearing in one game and serving as an extra during the playoffs. He would score his first NHL goal on Halloween night in 1992 in Edmonton. His 1992-93 season was split between NHL and AHL action before taking on a full time role with the Caps.

He started off with 12 and 11 goals, respectively in his first two full seasons with the Caps before posting a then career best 23 goals in 1995-96 in 70 games. He helped Team USA win the first ever World Cup of Hockey in 1996.

Konowalchuk would continue to score double digits in goals and assists the next four seasons. He had a career high 24 goals and 23 assists in the 2000-01 season. The next season he was named co team captain with Brendan Witt. In 2002-03, Konowalchuk was promoted to sole team captain.  The Caps would finish second in the Southeast Division and make the playoffs that season.

The 2003-04 season was dreadful right from the beginning and like Gonchar, Konowalchuk was also a part of the Caps fire sale. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in a tanking season so that the Caps could land that number one draft pick.

#8 Mike Gartner

Mike Gartner was drafted by the Washington Capitals at fourth overall in the 1979 NHL Draft. He played 19 seasons in the NHL for the Capitals, Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Phoenix Coyotes. In 2017, Gartner was named one of the 100 greatest players in NHL history as part of the league’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Gartner would spend about 10 seasons with the Capitals. He recorded an assist in his NHL debut on Oct. 11, 1979 against the Buffalo Sabres. Gartner had a solid first season with the Caps in 1979-80 winning both team’s Rookie of the Year and MVP awards. He was also voted on by the fans as the team’s Most Promising Player. He led the Caps with 36 goals.

Gartner was traded to the Minnesota North Stars on March 7, 1989. He left the Capitals as the team’s all time leader in career goals, assists, and points. Despite scoring 50 goals only once in a single season, Gartner is only the fifth player in NHL history to reach 700 goals. Alex Ovechkin reached that number in Feb. 2020.

On Dec. 28, 2008 prior to a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Caps retired Gartner’s #11 to the rafters. He is tied with Ovechkin and Jaromir Jagr with 15 consecutive 30 goal seasons.

#7 Dmitri Khristich

Dmitri Khristich was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the sixth round at 120th overall in the 1988 NHL Draft. Before there was Alex Ovechkin, it was Dmitri Khristich who would don the #8 on his sweater for the Capitals.

Khristich played in 811 games for the Capitals, Los Angeles Kings, Boston Bruins, and Toronto Maple Leafs. He came from the Soviet League playing for his home city the Sokol Kiev. He also represented the Soviet Union at the World Junior Championships.

Khristich finally joined the Capitals on Dec. 11, 1990 and was the first youngest player in the Soviet League to set foot on North American rinks. He had a strong rookie season with the Capitals scoring 13 goals and adding 14 assists for 27 points.

In 1991-92, Khristich was even better scoring a career high 36 goals and 37 assists for 73 points, helping lead the Capitals to a second place finish in the Patrick Division before bowing out to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the semifinals in seven games. In the first four games of that series, Khristich had three goals and two assists.

Khristich would skate in 419 games with the Capitals during his seven seasons there and recorded 140 goals and 160 assists for 300 points. After he was traded by the team in 1995, he would rejoin the Caps in a trade in Dec. 2000.

#6 Michal Pivonka

Michal Pivonka was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the third round at 59th overall in the 1984 NHL Draft. He would join the Capitals in the 1986-87 season. In the 1983 European Junior Championships, Pivonka was named to the tournament’s all star team after his performance caught the eye of NHL scouts. He would later appear in the World Junior Championships in 1985 and 1986, winning a gold medal on the second try.

It took a while for Pivonka to make the jump to the NHL after he got drafted as he needed to complete his required military service before making the jump. He had big shoes to fill when he joined the Caps after Bengt-Ake Gustafsson retired. He would center a line with Bobby Gould and Gatean Duchesne.

With strong skating, brilliant passing and puck handling, and physicality, Pivonka made decent first impressions. Pivonka played for the Caps for 12 seasons. In the early 90’s he was reunited with fellow countryman Peter Bondra. The two became a dynamic duo. In 1991-92, Pivonka scored a career high 80 points in 80 games with 23 goals and 57 assists.

Pivonka recorded 418 career points with the Capitals with 181 goals and 418 assists. His final season occurred in 1998-99. He completed his overall pro career in 2000 after he was dispatched to the Kansas City Blades of the IHL.

#5 Mike Green

Everyone talks about the first rounder the Washington Capitals selected in the 2004 NHL Draft that we’ll touch on in a few slides from now, but the Caps also made another draft pick in that round at 29th overall. They selected defenseman Mike Green and he became an instant part of the young guns.

Green would spend 10 seasons with the Capitals and go on to be their best offensive defenseman in franchise history. In 2005-06 he bounced between the Capitals and their AHL affiliate the Hershey Bears, winning the Calder Cup at the end of the season. Come 2007-08, Green had a full time role and began to breakout with 18 goals scored. That season, Green was ranked second among NHL defensemen in goals and he additionally recorded 56 points while playing in all 82 regular season games.

On Valentines Day in 2009, Green set an NHL record for the longest goal scoring streak by a defenseman with eight games. He broke Mike O’Connoell’s record of seven games with the Boston Bruins that he set in the 1983-84 season.

From 2008-10, Green’s offense in Washington was on fire on both even strength play and while quarterbacking the power play. He had a slapshot that would rip right through the net. Green recorded 360 points during his time with the Capitals with 113 goals and 247 assists.

#4 Braden Holtby

I was in a pickle here, I’ll admit it. Had to include a goalie on this list and I was torn between Braden Holtby and Olaf Kolzig. I ultimately picked Holtby as he helped the Washington Capitals get the job done just a few years before he left but both of their names are deservedly on the Stanley Cup.

But Holtby making this list shows just how much the NHL Draft matters. Sometimes even with a late pick you can find a diamond in the rough. The Caps sure did with Holtby when they selected him in the fourth round at 93rd overall in 2008.

Holtby made his debut on Nov. 5, 2010 against the Boston Bruins and got his first start two nights later. Flash forward to spring of 2012 and Holtby was thrust into the starting goaltender role for the playoffs with Michal Neuvirth and Tomas Vokoun both injured. He became a full time starter in the 2013 season.

In 2015-16, Holtby tied Martin Broudeur’s record for wins in a season with 48 and would go on to win the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goaltender. He struggled two seasons later and began the playoffs as a backup to Philipp Grubauer but took over in their second game and went 16-7 with a 2.16 goals against average and a .922 save percentage along with two shutouts to help lead the Caps to the Stanley Cup.

#3 Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom was selected in the first round at fourth overall by the Washington Capitals with the pick announced on stage by none other than Alex Ovechkin. He does’t get the spotlight like his bro across the league but his elite passing and playmaking abilities haven’t been unnoticed.

Backstrom would join the Capitals full time beginning in the 2007-08 season. Not only is he a consistent playmaker but he can score too. In the Caps run to the Stanley Cup in 2018, Backstrom recorded 23 points with five goals and 18 assists in 20 games.

Backstrom impressed the Caps scouts with his performance in the 2006 IIHF World Championship. At just 18 and a half years old, he was the youngest player to represent Team Sweden. He appeared in four games and helped them toward the Gold Medal.

During that same season, Backstrom was named the Swedish Elite League Rookie of the Year after he finished with 26 points with 10 goals and 16 assists for Brynas. In addition he was selected as the top junior player in Sweden. Eight years later he helped lead Sweden to a Silver Medal in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

In Backstrom’s first season with the Caps he set a rookie record with 55 assists. He hasn’t looked back and has since skated in over 1,000 games needed just 20 more points for 1,000 in his carer entering this season.

#2 Peter Bondra

Peter Bondra was drafted by the Washington Capitals in the eighth round at 156th overall in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft. He spent 14 seasons in Washington and scored 472 goals in 961 games. He helped lead the Capitals to their first Eastern Conference title in 1998 before the team was swept in the Stanley Cup Finals by the Detroit Red Wings.

Prior to Bondra’s draft selection, the forward did not know any English. He talked more about those early days of having to make the quick adjustment of learning a new language on the fly to Alan May during NBC Sports Washington’s Capitals Pregame Live. He also hadn’t watched a single NHL game.

Bondra said:

“Well, first of all, I was surprised I was drafted by the Washington Capitals. I was discovered…in the middle of nowhere actually, in Czechoslovakia. I didn’t have any knowledge of the National Hockey League, obviously, I didn’t speak any English. There was no social media, so the first [NHL] game ever I saw ever with my eyes, I was in it. So, great seats.”

Then Capitals head coach Terry Murray would turn to Michal Pivonka to help him adapt:

“I was so nervous, but I was fortunate and lucky to have great teammates and those teammates helped me. For example, before a game, [former Capitals head coach] Terry Murray had a coach’s presentation speech, and I didn’t understand anything. I just remember where Terry just kinda pointed to Mike Pivonka and said ‘Hey, just take him on the side and explain to him what we’re going to do in the game.’ To have teammates like that, it was a much better and easier transition to become an NHL player.”

#1 Alex Ovechkin

Following one of their worst seasons in franchise history (key words: one of), the Washington Capitals won the NHL Draft Lottery and were blessed with the first pick in the 2004 NHL Draft. The Capitals used that pick to take Alex Ovechkin, a pick that would change their franchise forever.

Ovechkin was an 18 year old Russian that scouts across the league were high on. They were able to tank for this top draft selection thanks to a fire sale where they traded Peter Bondra, Jaromir Jagr, Robert Lang, Sergei Gonchar, and others. The Caps had won just 23 of 82 games and had the third worst record in the NHL. Despite this, they were still able to leapfrog the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins in the lottery.

“With the first selection in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, the Washington Capitals are pleased to select Alexander Ovechkin,” then general manager George McPhee told the crowd from the podium.

McPhee would later tell ESPN:

“We’ve had him rated number one for a long time. We could have done a trade for volume, but none of those players would have been as good as this guy.”

McPhee was right. No player selected in that draft has come even close to what Ovechkin has accomplished. From scoring goals, to winning Washington’s first Stanley Cup in 2018, to giving one of the best players in NHL history a run for his money in the NHL scoring title, we are truly lucky we’ve gotten to watch him night after night. Enjoy every second of these next five seasons.