The NHL's 2010-11 season ended last week with the Boston Bruins defeating the Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup, but now all 30 teams are back into the mix starting with the first round of the 2011 NHL Draft Friday. The general consensus is that Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Adam Larsson and Jonathan Huberdeau will be the top three selections, but the Washington Capitals will not need to worry about them, considering that they will select 26th overall out of 30 picks.
The Caps have only five picks in this year's draft for the second consecutive year, which is tied for a franchise-low. Washington will also get its first pick at No. 26 for the second straight draft; the Caps selected Evgeny Kuznetsov with that pick.
The reason why the Caps ended up with only five picks is because they traded away two of them at the last two trade deadlines. In 2009-10, the Caps traded Brian Pothier, Oskar Osala and their pick in Saturday's second round for Joe Corvo. Last season, Dennis Wideman came to the Caps in exchange for prospect Jake Hauswirth and a 2011 third-round pick.
Six possible prospects have been analyzed here and here. Tune in to Versus at 7 p.m. EDT to see who the Caps and the rest of the league will select.