Mike Modano and Trevor Linden were the first two players taken, and Jeremy Roenick, Rod Brind'Amour and Teemu Selanne also went in the top 10. The next two rounds produced little in the way of top talent. Tie Domi (27th) was probably the best player to come out of the second round while Steve Heinze was the best of a weak third-round field.
The fourth round was full of plums if you were picking off the right tree -- Mark Recchi (67th), Tony Amonte (68th), Rob Blake (70th), Keith Carney (76th) and Joe Juneau (81st) were all selected in that round. Among later picks, Alexander Mogilny (89th), Dmitri Khristich (120th), Valery Kamensky (129th) and Claude Lapointe (234th) are noteworthy.
Hindsight is 20/20: It's tough to find fault with most of Washington's early picks. Most of the obvious talent was gone early and the Caps picked just a few slots after some of the dark horse talent evaporated in the fourth round. Five picks after the Caps tabbed defenseman Todd Hilditch with the 162nd overall pick, Montreal selected defenseman Sean Hill. After several injury-plagued campaigns, Hill proved to be a strong two-way defenseman, capable of playing the body and supplying a hard and accurate right-handed point shot.
Full Draft Results Here
