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30 - Age, in years, of the Capitals' first (#11 overall) and third (#54) picks in this year's draft. Don't follow?
On June 9, 1982, the Caps selected Scott Stevens with the fifth pick in the draft.
On July 16th, 1990, the Caps lost Stevens to the Blues via restricted free agency and were compensated with St. Louis's first round picks in the next five drafts. In 1993, they took Brendan Witt 11th overall with one of those picks (the only other time in franchise history prior to this year, incidentally, that they've had that pick).
On March 9, 2006, the Caps traded Witt to Nashville for Kris Beech and a first round pick that the team used to select Semyon Varlamov 23rd overall in 2006.
Then, on July 1, 2011, the Caps traded Varlamov to Colorado for the Avs' first-round pick in 2012 and the option to take a 2nd rounder they owned in 2012 (originally Boston's pick), an option the Caps exercised last week. Those two picks? The 11th and 54th in this year's draft, two picks that have been, in some ways, thirty years in the making. The Stevens pick truly is the gift that keeps on giving.