Caps Draft History: 1992 Entry Draft

Washington made a sound selection with its first pick (the second of the five first-rounders obtained from St. Louis for Scott Stevens), taking defenseman Sergei Gonchar. With its second-round pick, Washington took the first goaltender of the day, Jim Carey. Washington's two third-rounders -- Stefan Ustorf and Martin Gendron -- played briefly in the NHL and later played in Europe.

After drafting Gendron with the 71st overall pick the late Jack Button -- Washington's director of player personnel -- exuded, "No question, he's going to be a great hockey player."
Button was right, Gendron was a great hockey player. Unfortunately for the Caps, he was a great minor league hockey player. Gendron scored 217 goals in just 421 games at the AHL and IHL levels but managed only four tallies in 30 NHL contests.
Expansion clubs Tampa Bay and Ottawa had the top two picks and took defenseman Roman Hamrlik and center Alexei Yashin, respectively. The most noteworthy players from the rest of round one are probably Gonchar and Martin Straka (19th).
Round two produced Valeri Bure (33rd), Michael Peca (40th), Darren McCarty (46th), Andrei Nikolishin (47th) and Mattias Norstrom (48th). Noteworthy players from later rounds include Brent Gretzky (49th), Robert Svehla (78th), Jere Lehtinen (88th), Nikolai Khabibulin (204th), Anson Carter (220th) and Dan McGillis (238th).
Hindsight is 20/20:You can't argue with either of the Caps top two picks. Kirk Maltby (65th) was chosen between Ustorf and Gendron. Maltby has established himself as a solid NHL role player. He has played in more than 900 games and has played on four Cup-winning teams. Lehtinen is a three-time Selke Trophy winner and would have been a tremendous pick instead of Gendron.
Full Draft Results Here