The crazy thing about your post is that the guy who is lowest on the depth chart/pedigree that you named is probably Brooks.
Brooks ranks 10th OA ALL TIME in points in the W.
Your average walk on try out here that played some AAA would almost certainly not make the worst team in the W.
I got a year of JrB in before reality set in. Until then I truly believed I would eventually play pro.
I was a very good AAA player, always an all-star, wore the C from peewee on up, I could keep up with OHA JrB guys, but really wasn't winning many races at least not like I was at the lower levels. We had an exhibition against a SrA team supplemented with some Jr A Red Wings players, I couldn't believe how much bigger, stronger, faster and talented they were then the guys I was playing with. Night and day.
None of the guys I played with ever made the NHL, only two players I played with ever got drafted for that matter, one went in the 4th round in both the NHL and WHA. He was the best skater I ever shared ice with, he had a boomer of a shot and had the killer instinct, nice guy and funny as hell off ice, but scary to play against, he'd hurt you if given the chance. The player ended up getting 4 games with the old Houston Aeros in the WHA when he was 19. He told me a few years later that even though he played and got some shifts he really didn't feel like he belonged on the ice with those guys, that was a team that featured the Howes and some other NHL defections. He told me to think of everybody I ever played against that was bigger, stronger more talented then me and to multiply it by 10, and those were just the guys that were last cuts and players who were designated to the IHL, the AHL or the old CHA, the men who played regularly were in a class way above that. The other guy got drafted 6th rnd in the NHL and 8th Rnd in the WHA, he was a gifted puck handler and tough centreman(not a fighter, just strong and great at puck retrieval) and had what could only be called an abbreviated look in the IHL.
So good luck with the walk-on