Defenseman Ed Jovanovski was the first player chosen; he went to the Florida Panthers. Later first rounders included Oleg Tverdovsky (second), Radek Bonk (third), Jeff O'Neill (fifth), Ryan Smyth (sixth), Jeff Friesen (11th) and Mattias Ohlund (13th).
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Friesen name's on the Cup
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But the first round was also littered with busts and two of them were Washington picks. Defenseman Nolan Baumgartner (Washington's first pick, 10th overall) never became an NHL regular and right wing Alexander Kharlamov never scored more than 14 goals in any one season at the AHL level and never reached the NHL.
Jason Bonsignore (fourth overall), Eric Fichaud (16th), Jason Botterill (20th) and Evgeni Ryabchikov (21st) were among the other first round busts. Brett Lindros (ninth) had his career ended by concussion after playing in only 51 NHL games.
Washington's best pick was its 10th, winger Richard Zednik. Zednik was the 249th player chosen overall. He became Washington's lowest drafted player ever to reach the NHL. Zednik has totaled 183 goals in 675 NHL games.
Aside from Baumgartner and Zednik, center Matt Herr was the only other of Washington's 11 choices to reach the NHL.
Several solid citizens were picked up in the second round. Rhett Warrener (27th) was the first player chosen in the second round. Dave Scatchard (42nd), Curtis Brown (43rd) and Jose Theodore (44th) were drafted with consecutive choices. New Jersey nabbed Patrik Elias with the 51st overall pick.
Other productive 1994 draftees include Fredrik Modin (64th), Sheldon Souray (71st), Chris Drury (72nd), Chris Clark (77th), Milan Hejduk (87th), Vaclav Varada (89th), Brad Lukowich (90th), Marty Turco (124th), Bates Battaglia (132nd), Daniel Alfredsson (133rd), Tim Thomas (217th), Johan Hedberg (218th), Evgeni Nabokov (219th), Tomas Vokoun (226th), Steve Sullivan (233rd), Sergei Berezin (256th), Tomas Holmstrom (257th), Dick Tarnstrom (272nd) and Kim Johnsson (286th). Johnsson was chosen with the final overall selection in the draft.
Hindsight is 20/20: Choosing Friesen over Baumgartner and Ohlund over Kharlamov are the obvious ones in retrospect. The Caps would have still gotten a forward and a defenseman in the first round but would have fared much better than they did. Scatchard, Brown and Theodore went right after the Caps took Scott Cherrey with the 41st pick. The Caps did well to pluck Zednik in the later rounds but history shows there were plenty of other plums to be plucked in the waning picks of the draft that year, too.
| NO. |
PLAYER |
POS. |
COMMENT |
|
10
|
Nolan Baumgartner
|
D
|
Played 131 NHL games with six teams over parts of nine seasons. Was active in AHL in 2007-08.
|
|
15
|
Alexander Kharlamov
|
LW
|
Five pro seasons. Played in WCHL in 1999-00, returned to native Russia afterwards. First 14 picks from '94 draft made NHL.
|
|
41
|
Scott Cherrey
|
LW
|
Went to U. of New Brunswick after juniors. Played one pro season (1999-00) in the ECHL. Now an NHL linesman.
|
|
93
|
Matt Herr
|
C
|
U. of Michigan product played 52 games with Caps and 58 in NHL, scoring four goals.
|
|
119
|
Yanick Jean
|
D
|
Played four seasons in the ECHL. Later skated in the Quebec Sr. Pro League.
|
|
145
|
Dmitri Mekeshkin
|
D
|
Never played pro hockey in North America.
|
|
171
|
Daniel Reja
|
C
|
Played five pro seasons, also played on Germany and Italy.
|
|
197
|
Chris Patrick
|
LW
|
Princeton University product and son of Caps president Dick Patrick never turned pro.
|
|
223
|
John Tuohy
|
D
|
Providence College product never turned pro.
|
|
249
|
Richard Zednik
|
RW
|
Lowest drafted Cap ever to play in NHL. Has 183 goals in 675 NHL contests.
|
|
275
|
Sergei Tertyshyny
|
D
|
Older brother of the late Dmitrti Tertyshny played two seasons with Portland of AHL.
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