Who are the best undrafted NHL players of all time?

shello

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Mar 5, 2011
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If we're talking modern day it's Marty St.Louis for me just based off how much he accomplished. Couple Art Rosses, a Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay (Or Lester B. Pearson during his time) all while being 5'6 ( I know he's listed at 5'8 but there's no way).
 
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mattihp

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I don’t follow basketball so I can’t compare. But it was a rival league of the NHL in the 70s and quite a few star players played in the WHA instead of the NHL - Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull and even young Wayne Gretzky. The league doesn’t exist anymore since it merged with the NHL in 1979. Teams like the Oilers or Whalers (today’s Canes) were first WHA teams before they joined the NHL.
It came back in 2004, didn't work out. They wanted Crosby, who didn't want them.. Even with a $7,5mil ELC..
 

Ivo

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Dec 29, 2008
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It would be interesting to hear the backstory on some of these players. This story mentions that St. Louis was a very good college player. GMs must have fixated on his diminutive size to pass him over in all the rounds.

Martin St. Louis and the 10 Best Recent NHL Players That Went Undrafted
That seems to be the story with a number of these guys. Rafalski, Torey Krug, not exactly giants. Visnovsky was eventually drafted, but he was 23 years old by then. But then again, size also wasn't always enough - Zdeno Chara was only drafted in his second year of eligibility.
 

Paper

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While not technically undrafted, fatty Brett Hull was passed over entirely in two drafts for being fat. Finally he was selected in the 6th round by the Flames in his third year of eligibility. Ended up with nearly 750 goals, pretty good for the fattie.
 
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Alicat

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Noel Acciari has turned into a solid player for Florida as has Frank Vatrano.

Say what you will about their drafting but the Bruins have found some solid undrafted guys who have found success with other teams.

Chris Tanev and Dwayne Roloson also come to mind.
 

Beerfish

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Charlie Huddy had a good career as an undrafted player. Not elite like many of the names already mentioned but good.
 

Brodeur

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It would be interesting to hear the backstory on some of these players. This story mentions that St. Louis was a very good college player. GMs must have fixated on his diminutive size to pass him over in all the rounds.

Martin St. Louis and the 10 Best Recent NHL Players That Went Undrafted

For a lot of guys, it's a combination of lack of size and/or breaking out after they've run out of draft eligibility. St. Louis put up great numbers as a freshman/sophomore in college, but perhaps there was some skepticism as NCAA hockey wasn't as good in the 90's as it is today.

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The Devils 'found' John Madden by accident while keeping tabs on teammate Brendan Morrison. Amusing thing with Madden was there seemed to be some confusion over his birth year. For awhile he was listed as a 1975 but he was 1973.

At least with baseball, we've seen some prospects claim to be younger than they actually are in order to seem more attractive. Not sure if that was the case with Madden or if that was just a typo that got propagated.

But in the case of a lot of college upperclassemen, they come out at 23/24 years old so they're just unknown commodities during their draft years (18-20 years old). Other guys simply just have late growth spurts and then need a couple years to get their coordination back.
 
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OKR

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Nov 18, 2015
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I'd put Adam Oates in there above St.Louis.
Oates has more assists than St.Louis has points.
I wouldn’t, and honestly don’t think anyone should have him above him tbh.

St. Louis has him beat in individual awards, international trophies and NHL trophies, their ppg is pretty even considering Oates played in higher scoring era, and made a career of passing puck to players better than him, while St. Louis was the best player on his team for most of his career.
 

SwedishFire

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Mar 3, 2011
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Yeah, but that was in special circumstances. For players who truly went undrafted, the first that comes to mind is Marty St. Louis (also a Hall of Famer) and then Brian Rafalski.

Adam Oates. How damn crazy. is that?
Panarin. Also absurdly crazy. Prob. under developed and russian factors too.
Martin St Louis
Dino Ciccarelli

I dont thinl Gretzky would count, there was a buzz around him already at 15.
But he was heaveily questioned of size matters. Wich id weird cause LeFleur was having succes in that time, and he was a small stature.

Daniel Alfredsson was passed on in miliple draft, ubtil he was 20.
 

Stealth JD

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I wouldn’t, and honestly don’t think anyone should have him above him tbh.

St. Louis has him beat in individual awards, international trophies and NHL trophies, their ppg is pretty even considering Oates played in higher scoring era, and made a career of passing puck to players better than him, while St. Louis was the best player on his team for most of his career.

Oates > St. Louis

Hull and Neely both went 50 goals in 50 games with him as their #1C. He didn't win individual trophies because he played in the same era as Gretzky and Lemieux.
 

OKR

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Oates > St. Louis

Hull and Neely both went 50 goals in 50 games with him as their #1C. He didn't win individual trophies because he played in the same era as Gretzky and Lemieux.
Didn’t win any team trophies either, and he benefitted from Neely and Hull just as much as they did from him.
 
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