NHL Late Round Draft Picks are Always Full of Surprises (Part One)

May 16, 2009

By Sebastien Tremblay… Overachieving in the NHL is no easy feat. So with the uprising of surprise Chicago Blackhawks prospect Kris Versteeg, a fifth round pick, I wanted to give a shout out to those players we thought wouldn’t make it, and were too small or were “not good enough” to make an impact.

I wanted to show how impressive their careers are, and how they had to overcome much more obstacles than their first, second or third round teammates.

When you’re a late round draft pick, you don’t get the same exposure or the same opportunities. So here are those that raised the bar for the rest of them, and proved to us we were wrong about their talent and dedication.

For this first part, I’ve looked at a 20 years span starting in 1980 up to 2000.

Here they are: