For Capitals, 6/26/04 a choice day

LAS VEGAS | Every year, contingents from NHL teams arrive at the draft and hope a couple of correct selections can change the fortunes of the franchise.

It happened 20 years ago for the Detroit Red Wings. On one day in 1989, the Red Wings had arguably the greatest draft the league has ever seen. A class highlighted by Sergei Fedorov and Nicklas Lidstrom joined Steve Yzerman as the foundation for Detroit’s return to prominence in the 1990s.

Rarely does an NHL team draft two players who are future winners of the Hart (league MVP) and Norris (top defenseman) trophies on the same day; only Montreal has also done so, picking Guy Lafleur and Larry Robinson in 1971.

By the end of Thursday evening, the Washington Capitals also might be able to boast such a feat. But regardless of whether Alex Ovechkin collects his second consecutive Hart Trophy and Mike Green earns his first Norris, which will be announced here at the NHL Awards show, it is clear the franchise changed forever June 26, 2004.

That day in Raleigh, N.C., Washington general manager George McPhee and the Capitals chose Ovechkin with the first pick overall and tabbed Green at No. 29, and now less than five years later both players could celebrate their rise to stardom with some of hockey’s most treasured hardware.

“From the first year when I came here to where we are now, it is night and day,” Green said. “The organization has taken the right steps to get the right personnel and the right players in here. George and [owner] Ted [Leonsis] had a vision, and here it is now. I think we’re very close to winning a Stanley Cup.”

McPhee’s staff did plenty of groundwork in the months leading up to that fateful day. With a potential work stoppage looming and the franchise floundering both on the ice and at the box office, Leonsis and McPhee decided it was time to start over.

As the 2003-04 season’s trade deadline neared, McPhee cast off several high-priced veterans in an epic fire sale. Among the bounty from those trades were two first-round picks - one from Boston for Sergei Gonchar and one from Detroit in a package for Robert Lang.

“Some people have talked about ‘Oh, that’s a good draft for us.’ To win the lottery and be able to step up and take Alex, that is partly lucky,” Caps scouting director Ross Mahoney said. “But George got us multiple picks. If we had one pick, we get Alex and that is great, but we don’t get Mike and we don’t get Jeff [Schultz]. When your general manager goes out and acquires extra picks for you, especially early in the draft, it increases your odds of having a good draft.”

The moves also ensured the Caps would finish the season with one of the worst records in the league and a prime chance to win the draft lottery. Washington ended up with the second-worst mark, and the Caps received the break they needed to move past the Pittsburgh Penguins and secure the top pick.

“When I found out we won the lottery, I called our chief scout and told him we had had a good day and we would be picking first,” McPhee said. “I asked him what he was thinking, and he immediately said Ovechkin. Now, we had a couple of months to go through the due diligence and put in all the work, but he was just a guy that it would have been tough to pass on. He is such a rare combination of being able to score goals the way he does and also be able to hit people and be physical the way he is.”

Ovechkin announced his presence on the world stage by scoring 14 goals in eight games at the world under-18 championship - as a 16-year-old. Two years later he remained the favorite to go No. 1 in 2004, but there was another highly touted Russian at the top of the list.

The Caps had to choose between Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, whom the Penguins then selected with the second pick. They have blossomed into maybe the sport’s two greatest talents, and the rivalry between the two - civil or otherwise - will be a dominant story line in the NHL for years to come.

Regardless of which player is considered the best in the world on any given day or week, one clear advantage for Ovechkin is his marketability. He has a rare combination of sublime talent and an infectious personality to match.

That ability to be the face of a franchise might not be a factor on draft day, yet with Ovechkin the Capitals have not only become a Stanley Cup contender - they are also one of the league’s most marketable clubs.

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