Gator Mike
Registered User
Maybe not as hard as you think.I think that 2 are longshots and 1 is a possibility. It's friggin hard for 3rd,4th and 5th rounders to buck the odds.
O'Gara was the last pick of the 5th round in 2011. Nine players from that round have already played in the NHL, including Andrew Shaw and Nikita Nesterov. Nine picks after the Bruins took O'Gara, Anaheim took Josh Manson. I watched both players in college. They're somewhat comparable, except O'Gara was a better all-around player. If O'Gara is another Josh Manson, then yeah... I think it's worth getting excited over. I'm not saying he's the next coming of Larry Robinson... but he's a very good prospect.
The following year, the Bruins took Grzelcyk at the end of the 3rd round. 13 players from that round have already played in the NHL, including Shayne Gostisbehere and Colton Parayko. (Jon Gillies probably would have made it 14, had he not suffered a hip injury early this year.)