Caps Draft History: 1993 Entry Draft

The Capitals again had two first-rounders in 1993, their own and St. Louis's. Both players -- defenseman Brendan Witt and center Jason Allison -- turned out to be solid NHLers, but Allison didn't blossom until after the Caps had traded him to Boston in the deal for Adam Oates. Of the remainder of the Caps' picks, Andrew Brunette has turned out the best thus far. He has scored 191 goals in 788 regular season NHL games.

Ottawa used the first overall pick on forward Alexandre Daigle, who was largely a bust with the Senators, Flyers, Lightning, Rangers, Penguins and Wild. Hartford struck gold with the second pick, taking defenseman Chris Pronger. Pronger was followed by Chris Gratton (third), Paul Kariya (fourth), Rob Niedermayer (fifth), Viktor Kozlov (sixth), Jason Arnott (seventh) and Nicklas Sundstrom (eighth). Others taken in a talent-rich first round in 1993 were Kenny Jonsson (12th), Adam Deadmarsh (14th), Saku Koivu (21st) and Todd Bertuzzi (23rd). Illustrating how long it can take for an amatuer player to develop into a solid NHL regular, players such as Kozlov, Arnott and Bertuzzi needed several seasons before they were able to start toward fulfilling their potential in the league.
The second round produced Jamie Langenbrunner (35th), Janne Niinimaa (36th) and Bryan McCabe (40th). Later selections included Eric Daze (90th), Miroslav Satan (111th), Tommy Salo (118th), Darcy Tucker (151st), Hal Gill (207th), Mike Grier (219th), Pavol Demitra (227th) and German Titov (252nd).
Hindsight is 20/20: Tucker is the kind of player that you hate to play against but love to have on your team. Taking him instead of Banham would have been a coup.
Full Draft Results Here