Prospect Info: Tate Olson, 2015 7th Round Pick (210th Overall)

[Snatcher Demko]

Yeah always gets a lot of flack for his lists/rankings on this site, but you have to consider it from a certain perspective. Imagine you had no internet to discuss prospects on and zero input from other media & scouts, but rather you just had to watch the kids play and come up with your own unbiased rankings. How do you think that would turn out?

Obviously Button can see what everyone else is saying, but he still makes his calls sticking by his own opinion.

Yeah, you have to respect this about him. But that doesn't keep us from criticizing the hell out of anyone's mistakes with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight!

 

[deckercky]

I know you're kidding but for the benefit of people who think there is any difference between rounds 4-7: value-in-acquiring-draft-picks

There is none. Odds of unearthing a player that plays 300+ NHL games hover from 6% to 9% with the 5th round being among the poorest yielding rounds in this particular study (decade long). Posters fond of going on about a certain GM failing to get a pick 4-5 instead of a 6-7 pay special attention. Nucks do better in the modern 8th/young, unsigned FA category than just about any of these late rounds.

It's pretty obvious why undrafted UFAs are more successful - they generally only get signed if they're at the point where they're nearly guaranteed at least to have an AHL impact, whereas getting an AHL player out of a late drafting round is a lucky pick.

 

[Trelane]

It's pretty obvious why undrafted UFAs are more successful - they generally only get signed if they're at the point where they're nearly guaranteed at least to have an AHL impact, whereas getting an AHL player out of a late drafting round is a lucky pick.

Gillis era Nucks certainly were, but there are about the same number of NHLers in any give year who were never drafted UFAs as there are players who were drafted in each of the late rounds. Undrafted UFA=4th=5th=6th=Nth as background goes. Late picks is really just securing signing rights. UFAs may have better odds but since teams probably sign at least 4 or more players (rounds 4-7 equivalent) just to stock their farm teams each year it would depend on how many have been drafted at some point.