Now that the 2008 Entry Draft has concluded, we can look back at a decade-long body of work for GMGM and his scouting staff, and observe a dramatic improvement in draft results.

While stumbling out of the gates in his early years as Capitals general manager, McPhee has recently blossomed into a leader of an astute and nimble drafting force.

Its worth noting that this is the situation McPhee faced a decade ago:

NEEDS: The Capitals need to find the Fountain of Youth but without a first-round selection, they will be hard-pressed to get the young, punishing defenseman they sorely need. Five of their top seven rearguards are 31 or older and their age showed in the Stanley Cup Finals against Detroit. Hopefully, Washington can find a defenseman who can stay healthy, as the injury bug has bitten the Caps’ defense many times over the last few years. A playmaking center also is needed, since Adam Oates, Dale Hunter and Michal Pivonka are all over 32.

Change didn’t come easy. (And that “injury bug?” 511 man-games lost to injury the following season.)

But now, coupled with the wheelin’ and dealin’ portion of his managerial duties — the fire-sale moves of 2004, free agent signings of Chris Clark, Donald Brashear, Tom Poti, Michael Nylander, and others, the outright theivery this past trade deadline day to obtain Cristobal “Hip Hop” Huet and Sergei Fedorov for next to nothing (guys that we hope will remain suited in Capitals red come the fall), and the 1st round pick re-shuffling last night — we are witnessing The Undertaker at the height of his powers.

photo from Reuters Pictures

McPhee recently noted:

“It took 15 years for [Red Wings owner] Mike Ititch to win a Cup, and it has taken some time to evolve. But we’re drafting much better these days than when I first started in this job.”

No kidding. Now, I don’t expect that George is giving himself a five year cushion to bring the Cup to Washington. But its remarkable that Ted and partners have exhibited such patience with McPhee over the years, despite early failings that would have led most other teams to dismiss him long ago. Which would be to let him move on to develop into the crafty GM that he is today. For another team.

As a result of this patience, not only do we have a team which is approaching a peak level of skill and youthful exuberance, dotted with veteran leadership, but we have a general manager and scouting staff (which has remained relatively intact throughout most of McPhee’s tenure in Washington) really coming into his, and its, own.

George is transforming into a butterfly. (A wily, intense, bad-ass butterfly, that is.) Just a few days before he celebrates his 50th birthday, his best days as a GM to date are right in front of him.

Let’s take a brief look at draft years from 1998 to present to illustrate this upward trend:

1998: The only player drafted this year with notable NHL experience: Krys Barch (#106) — 74 GM, 4 G, 4 A. Rastislav Stana was an interesting pick in round 7 and was once thought to the goalie of the future, but it never quite worked out. (He’s played in the Swedish Elite League since 2004.)

1999: McPhee took Kris Beech 7th overall. (Sure, we turned him, in part, for Jaromir Jagr, but that was a Penguin salary dump.) Beech has matured into a serviceable center, but not what you might have hoped for from a pick that high.

George also had FOUR second round picks this year, and only one reached 50 NHL games - Nolan Yonkman. Nolan’s injury-laden history is partly to blame for his inability to stick at the NHL level.

2000 resulted in some improvement. McPhee took Brian Sutherby and Matt Pettinger with his first round pick (#26) and a second round pick (#43), respectively. Both have played in over 300 NHL games and crafted decent careers both of them. But the remaining four picks in this year turned out to be unremarkable.

2001 saw another lack of a first round pick, and with the first pick McPhee had available (#58), he chose Nathan Paetsch. Now a decent mid to bottom tier D-man for Buffalo.

And then McPhee pulled off arguably his first solid late round pick during his Washington tenure, taking Johnny Oduya at #221. Unfortunately the Capitals never signed him.

2002: McPhee had three first rounders this year and selected Steve Eminger, Alexander Semin, and Boyd Gordon, all of which have made significant impacts in their own way. Two of them have played 200 + games (and Semin soon will reach that mark at 192 games played).

While its impressive that McPhee was able to get all three of these 1st round picks signed and into the fold, occupying regular roster spots and vital roles on the team, we still find lacking any draft success in this year beyond round one, out of a whopping 10 later round picks in ‘02.

2003: Eric Fehr was the Caps lone 1st rounder in this draft class for the ages, and George didn’t get to pick again until #83, when he took local product Stephen Werner. Werner might barely hang on the end of a list of top Caps prospects; otherwise, not much else was McPhee able to pluck out of this deep draft from his remaining four picks.

2004: GMGM drafted Ovechkin here of course, which a talking stuffed animal could have done. But he also plucked Schultz and Green from late first round picks. And then he took Chris Bourque at #33, who has played a handful of NHL games to date and has at least cracked the parent club roster.

Sami Lepisto at #66 has also played a couple in Capitals red, and may turn out to be a good deeper draft pick.

Most significantly, as far as late round jewels, McPhee selected Andrew Gordon at #197, and Travis Morin, in the 9th (!) round, #263, both of which are signed and authored solid seasons with their respective AHL and ECHL teams.

* * *

Out of all of the players drafted between 1990 and 1999, about 19% have played in at least 200 NHL games. McPhee’s overall rate between 1998 and 2004 (a reasonable cut-off point): 12% (rounding up a bit for players sure to crack 200 games early next season). So he’s been a bit behind the pace. But George could be catching up to the average right quick.

As for 2005 through 2007, its too early to tell how the draft haul in these years will turn out. Notable promising players from these drafts are Josh Godfrey (#34, 2007), Ted Ruth (#46, 2007, turned to Columbus for Fedorov last February), Simeon Varlamov (#23, 2006), Michael Neuvirth (#34, 2006), Francois Bouchard (#35, 2006), Keith Seabrook (#52, 2006), Oskar Osala (#97, 2006), Sasha Pokuluk (#14, 2005), and Joe Finley (#27, 2005).

Big late round picks from these years include Mathieu Perreault, (#177, 2006), Patrick McNeill (#118, 2005), “Cheeser” Daren Machesney (#143, 2005), and Viktor Dovgan, (#209, 2005). (You may also recall a dispute over Dovgan’s eligibility at the 2005 draft due to his age, lending to his late round selection, in which the Capitals prevailed.) All of these late round picks have legitimate potential to play regular NHL hockey.

And even McPhee’s recent first round picks are improvements over prior years. Of course, its easy to draft a quality player #4 or #5 overall, like Nick Backstrom (2006) and Karl Alzner (2007), respectively. But not so easy to select the best center for LW cornerstone Ovechkin, and a defenseman perhaps ready, just over one year later, to log a healthy amount of minutes for the parent club this fall. McPhee and his staff have accomplished just that.

Then in the first round of this 2008 draft, he trades part of a bevy of second round picks (gained from dealing away picks from last year’s weaker draft) to move up to get Gusty Jr. and John Carlson, two potentially fantastic 1st round picks. In addition to the selections themselves, George seems to have learned when to hold the picks and when to fold ‘em (trade ‘em).

Time will tell if any of these recent deep draft selections become the next late round smash, like Detriot’s Zetterberg (#210, 1999) or Datsyuk (#171, 1998). But for now, it looks like McPhee has used a higher percentage of his later round picks to select players more likely to become significant NHL contributors.