Confirmed with Link: Penguins sign college undrafted Drew O'Connor

DominicT

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I saw this: NHL - 2021 Draft Thread | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League (mandatory.com) on the Bruins board a few days ago. @DominicT looked at all of the draft picks of each team from 2010-15 and counted how many players played 100 games in the NHL. The Penguins had the fewest picks, with 29, but 13 of those have played 100 games in the NHL. The Pens' 44.8% success rate is the highest in the league. This also doesn't include either Jarry or Lafferty, as neither of them have played 100 NHL games (yet). If you click the link and then scroll down, he made a chart.
Also, 13 draft picks to play 100 games during that time puts the Penguins tied for 8th-most. Only seven teams have had more than 13 picks play more than 100 NHL games; the Penguins and two other teams have had exactly 13 players. This means that 20 teams have drafted fewer players that have played 100 NHL games from 2010-15 than the Penguins.

I also did undrafted free agent signings by team from 2010 - 2020 if your interested. Same criteria - those that went on to play 100 NHL games

undrafted signings.PNG
 

Pens x

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I mean, our scouting and drafting has been fine for a long time. Anyone after like midway through the first is a huge longshot to see NHL time, let alone be a regular, and despite not having high 1st rounders we've gotten some studs in middle rounds.

Likely would've seen the same under the Shero/Bylsma regime but they were too far up their own asses to actually follow through with the development of draftees. We never would've gotten Rust, Jake, Murray, etc. under the previous regime because we'd always have 35 year old journeyman players taking up their spots and playing shit hockey to boot.
How has our drafting been fine for a long time? Dominik Simon has been our best draft pick (as of now) since he was taken in 2015. You probably couldn’t find a team worse as drafting over the last 5 or 6 years.

Shero was the one that drafted the guys you mentioned. You can’t even use the we trade our first round picks excuse to defend JR since Shero drafted Rust, Murray and Jake in the third rounds. We’ve been unable to find anyone decent in the draft for far too long.
 
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steelcityassault

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How has our drafting been fine for a long time? Dominik Simon has been our best draft pick (as of now) since he was taken in 2015. You probably couldn’t find a team worse as drafting over the last 5 or 6 years.

Shero was the one that drafted the guys you mentioned. You can’t even use the we trade our first round picks excuse to defend JR since Shero drafted Rust, Murray and Jake in the third rounds. We’ve been unable to find anyone decent in the draft for far too long.
Fact - JR has been horrible drafting thus far. Shero was pretty good and his last 2 drafts helped us win the back-to-back's
 

Big Friggin Dummy

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How has our drafting been fine for a long time? Dominik Simon has been our best draft pick (as of now) since he was taken in 2015. You probably couldn’t find a team worse as drafting over the last 5 or 6 years.

Shero was the one that drafted the guys you mentioned. You can’t even use the we trade our first round picks excuse to defend JR since Shero drafted Rust, Murray and Jake in the third rounds. We’ve been unable to find anyone decent in the draft for far too long.
Kapanen was our last 1st rounder prior to Poulin. Anything after the 1st, and even midway through the 1st, is a total crapshoot. When you consistently trade your 1sts, you are going to have a rough time producing talent. If you luck out once in a while with an NHLer after the 1st, you're happy. If you end up with Murray, Rust, Blueger, Jarry, Guentzel, Lafferty, and Simon over the course of half a decade, you've not only found NHLers, but some damn good players. Does it suck that we don't have much to show for recent years? Sure. But those guys listed are, for the most part, still around and major contributors.

I'd also point out that I said scouting as well as drafting. Scouting brought us guys like Marino, and to a much lesser extent ZAR--who we all despise, but is an NHLer.
 

Empoleon8771

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Fact - JR has been horrible drafting thus far. Shero was pretty good and his last 2 drafts helped us win the back-to-back's

No he hasn't? 2014 got Kapanen, Lafferty and Angello who look like NHLers. 2015 got Sprong and Simon. 2016 and 2017 look like duds, but it's too early to tell with any of the other drafts.

Not only that, but undrafted free agents and trades for prospects should also count as prospect additions, too.
 

StroShow

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Dec 22, 2013
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For not having a lot of draft pick the Penguins have done a solid job of getting these undrafted free agents/ late round picks to come in and make a big impact the last few years.

Drew O'Connor and Josh Maniscalo (possibly this year)
John Marino
ZAR (I know the opinions on him vary around here , but he's still a very solid defensive player and 4th liner
Casey DeSmith (Solid back-up)
Teddy Blueger (Solid bottom 6 C)
Sam Lafferty (Solid bottom 6 player)

Some more underrated players in the system that have a chance to be NHL pieces at some point include

Radim Zohorna (24) signed as a European free agent 22 points in 21 games in Czech league this year.
Jesper Lindgren (23) D-man Acquired in the Kapanen trade. Has 18 points in 24 games in the Allsvenskan league. According to Elite Prospects he is an impressive blend of skill, speed, determination, and intelligence.
Valtteri Puustinen (21) 7th round pick in 2019 is Point per game in Liiga this year. 15 pts in 15 gp.
Cam Lee (23) signed as a UDFA is playing in the Czech league on loan and has 11 pts in 14 gp
 

Big Friggin Dummy

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I have no idea why I'm even responding to Pens x anymore. They're just hellbent on piling as much misery into their posts as possible. :laugh: I'm the token pessimist, but Pens x is on a whole different plane of existence.

It must be awesome to have such an unconcerned outlook on life that you get to be this amped up about stupid hockey shit. My guy's rockin' like 25 posts a day about Evan f***ing Rodrigues. Good lord, that's inner peace right there.
 

steelcityassault

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No he hasn't? 2014 got Kapanen, Lafferty and Angello who look like NHLers. 2015 got Sprong and Simon. 2016 and 2017 look like duds, but it's too early to tell with any of the other drafts.

Not only that, but undrafted free agents and trades for prospects should also count as prospect additions, too.
He's made up for it with college UFAs. I specifically said draft which look at the names you are highlighting it with -- c'mon man
 

Peat

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Jun 14, 2016
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He's made up for it with college UFAs. I specifically said draft which look at the names you are highlighting it with -- c'mon man

You're probably not getting better names than that if you're consistently drafting outside the top 100. The last I did the calculations, he was fairly on track to do about average from his draft picks given expectations. It would be really great if he and the scouts could hit on a few mid-round gems, but for all we know he has just they're taking their own sweet time to develop.
 

Pens x

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No he hasn't? 2014 got Kapanen, Lafferty and Angello who look like NHLers. 2015 got Sprong and Simon. 2016 and 2017 look like duds, but it's too early to tell with any of the other drafts.

Not only that, but undrafted free agents and trades for prospects should also count as prospect additions, too.
You have to go all the way back to 2014 to find a good player we drafted.

Are you really impressed by Lafferty??? He’s a soon-to-be 26 year old that still hasn’t found a permanent spot. Every team has a half dizenYou are digging deep if he’s one of the best guys drafted in 7 years.

JR has done pretty well with college players, but I’m so confused as to how some think JR has been anything but horrendous at drafting.
 
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Pens x

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You're probably not getting better names than that if you're consistently drafting outside the top 100. The last I did the calculations, he was fairly on track to do about average from his draft picks given expectations. It would be really great if he and the scouts could hit on a few mid-round gems, but for all we know he has just they're taking their own sweet time to develop.
He’s had like 11 picks in the top 100 - most have been crappy players/unknowns.
 

Ryder71

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You have to go all the way back to 2014 to find a good player we drafted.

Are you really impressed by Lafferty??? He’s a soon-to-be 26 year old that still hasn’t found a permanent spot. Every team has a half dizenYou are digging deep if he’s one of the best guys drafted in 7 years.

JR has done pretty well with college players, but I’m so confused as to how some think JR has been anything but horrendous at drafting.
He trades all our high picks, kinda hard to discern one way or another.
 

Empoleon8771

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He's made up for it with college UFAs. I specifically said draft which look at the names you are highlighting it with -- c'mon man

I mean of the drafts that have been long enough to look at, he has 2 decent drafts and 2 bad drafts. Not exactly a huge sample size to look at.

Lafferty, Angello, Kapanen, Simon and Sprong in back to back drafts is pretty decent.
 

Peat

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Getting a NHLer out of a 4th and 5th round pick is objectively a good draft pick.

Tbf, they've yet to prove they're definitely NHLers. I think Lafferty will, just about, although maybe only in the same fashion Trotman or Blandisi would count as one. Angello's a lot more unsure.
 

Honour Over Glory

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Jan 30, 2012
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Angello and Lafferty are nothing at this point.
They are mostly because they are rarely, if ever, used in Angello's case and in Lafferty's, when he looked good, they decided to sit him and give Marleau most of the playoffs to keep showing us why he f***ing sucked.

Lafferty could be a damn good 3rd liner, at worst he could be Sceviour, at best, he could be slightly better than Sceviour or who knows. Angello? Literally no clue what he can be, because this coach loves his veterans. He'd sooner play Jordan Nolan if he had a contract, over Lafferty, O'Connor, and even Angello. He'd cream his pants if we had Porter on this roster right now.

That dumb son of a bitch thinks he'll get a shot like Conor Sheary did, little does he know...
Getting a NHLer out of a 4th and 5th round pick is objectively a good draft pick.

Even better when you trade for one even lower and it's a 6th round pick that wanted out of Edmonton, named John Marino.
 

Big Friggin Dummy

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Lafferty will be a full time NHLer. He won't be a stud, he won't put up big points, he won't crack anyone's top-6, but he's an NHLer. He reminds me a lot of Tanev, and will probably turn out to be a pretty good 4th line energy/forecheck guy sooner than later.
 
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Mr Jiggyfly

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Jan 29, 2004
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Lafferty will be a full time NHLer. He won't be a stud, he won't put up big points, he won't crack anyone's top-6, but he's an NHLer. He reminds me a lot of Tanev, and will probably turn out to be a pretty good 4th line energy/forecheck guy sooner than later.

Laff would be a top sixer with his overall skill, skating and IQ, but he has TB’s lack of finish.

So a bigger Tanev is a pretty legit comparison for his ceiling.
 

Big Friggin Dummy

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Laff would be a top sixer with his overall skill, skating and IQ, but he has TB’s lack of finish.

So a bigger Tanev is a pretty legit comparison for his ceiling.
I don't see a top-6 player. I see a good to great 4th liner for sure, that's a lock imo. Probably a good third wheel, puck retrieval guy on a 3rd line.
 

SEALBound

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For not having a lot of draft pick the Penguins have done a solid job of getting these undrafted free agents/ late round picks to come in and make a big impact the last few years.

Drew O'Connor and Josh Maniscalo (possibly this year)
John Marino
ZAR (I know the opinions on him vary around here , but he's still a very solid defensive player and 4th liner
Casey DeSmith (Solid back-up)
Teddy Blueger (Solid bottom 6 C)
Sam Lafferty (Solid bottom 6 player)

Some more underrated players in the system that have a chance to be NHL pieces at some point include

Radim Zohorna (24) signed as a European free agent 22 points in 21 games in Czech league this year.
Jesper Lindgren (23) D-man Acquired in the Kapanen trade. Has 18 points in 24 games in the Allsvenskan league. According to Elite Prospects he is an impressive blend of skill, speed, determination, and intelligence.
Valtteri Puustinen (21) 7th round pick in 2019 is Point per game in Liiga this year. 15 pts in 15 gp.
Cam Lee (23) signed as a UDFA is playing in the Czech league on loan and has 11 pts in 14 gp

Bleuger was a 2nd round pick but I get your point. The coffers have been replenished well outside of the draft.
 

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