Hard to gauge the upside of players like that, Penner comes to mind. Pretty good season at Maine, does ok in the AHL and then suddenly explodes to dominate that league (part of that might have been due to overcooking in the AHL during the lockout). Then he settled in as a 40-50 point guy in the NHL before flaming out.
Did a little digging and found this snippet from a 2019 article from Last Word on Sports (LWOS):
It’s that time of year. The NCAA hockey regular season is coming to a close and conference tournaments are about to begin. NHL teams are now salivating at the chance to sign the top undrafted college hockey free agents as their teams play their final games of the season.
These prospects don’t always have an impact at the NHL level, but the chances of finding a diamond in the rough ala players like Matt Read, Danny DeKeyser, Chris Kunitz, Andy McDonald, Dustin Penner, Tyler Bozak, Jason Garrison, Mike Condon, Ben Scrivens, Torey Krug, Christian Folin, Frank Vatrano and others who have been uncovered in recent years is always a chance that NHL teams seem willing to take. At worst they give out an Entry Level contract, pay a player to play for their minor league club for a couple years, and then let them go. At best they get a player who can contribute at the NHL level, for a relatively low cap hit, without using a draft pick, or trading other assets. These players are low risk/big reward and so the competition to sign them will be fierce.
...
Alex Limoges, Left Wing, Penn State, 6’1” 201 lbs, Sophomore
After a solid freshman season, Limoges has exploded as a sophomore already doubling his goal total, and nearly doubling his points despite playing three fewer games so far. He has put up 17 goals and 41 points in 34 games this season. Limoges is used in all situations for the Nittany Lions, playing on the top line and also matching up against other team’s top lines. He is an effective two-way player, playing a smart positional game and almost always seems to be in the right spot. His strong skating and low centre of gravity make him strong on the puck and help him to cycle down low as well as battle for pucks on the boards and in front of the net. Limoges has a strong wrist shot and a quick release.
Kunie, Andy Mac, and Penner were all former college UDFA signed by the Ducks. Then the league started to copy the Ducks in hunting down college UDFA, which is when the Ducks moved to looking at Swedes.
Looking at Limoges' EP stats, he looks good and I'm scratching my head why he wasn't drafted. A significant reason for being passed over is his age. He started his four-year career at Penn State as a 20-year old. Many teams were looking for more upside in the draft from 17 and 18 year olds along with the occasional overagers. Limoges had a huge sophomore year at Penn State as a 21-year old, set to be 22 to start the next season.
I know GM Murray was looking for talent around 22-25 range, where prospects have had longer times to develop and should be launching forward. For the past few seasons, Murray has accumulated talents in that range on the down low with D Guhle, F Heinen, D Djoos, F Milano, F Volkov, and D Fleury. Guess Murray is trying to play the percentages that the more you have then the more one increases the chances of landing an NHL talent. Thus far, Fleury is looking to be a gem with high upside, maybe Volkov has a niche in the bottom-6. Limoges and Ducks may be on the same page here as the Ducks are looking for forward talent such that there's a path for Limoges to make the NHL in a year or two.
The only risk involved in signing Limoges to an NHL contract is taking up a contract spot. Currently, the Ducks have 49 contracts out of 5o total filled. Two will be made available by the retirement of players F Backes and G Miller. With a slew of defensemen here, Welinski's services will probably be not retained. Heinen and Rowney are bubble players to be retained. There's room there if the Ducks decide to take a flyer on Limoges.