Veini Vehviläinen was not drafted for some reason - I definitely would have taken him on the 7th round. He played half a season in Mestis which is 2nd best men's league in Finland (2.57 GAA, .917 SV%). He was amazing at the U18, that's what really opened my eyes (1.65 GAA, .949 SV%).
He's only 6'1", so he's average size for current NHL goalies but at least he isn't small. As with all 18-year-old goalies, they're not relevant for another 5 years at least but that's one name worth watching.
20 Team $$ Dynasty League (23 man roster, 27 man minor roster) w/Salary Cap at $80M on Fantrax **1 Time Champ
G, A, P, +/-, PP, SHP, Hits, Blocks, Wins, Save%, SV, GAA. *1 goalie starts
C - Couture, Kadri, Anisimov, Dvorak
LW - Marchand, JT Miller, Grabner, Hartman, Duclair
RW - Duchene, Oshie, Silfverberg, J.Williams
D - Ristolainen, S.Jones, Martinez, De Haan, Del Zotto, Chychrun, Carlo
G - Lundqvist, F.Andersen, Raanta
Minors - Meier, Barbashev, Barber, F.Perron, Heinen, Cholowski, T.Motte, Quenneville, Beaudin, Novak, Sissons, V.Dunn, Lauzon, Hogberg
Two stand out for me...Ken Appleby (G, Oshawa Generals) and Robby Jackson (F, Chicago Steel of USHL)
Maxim Tretiak, you think the grandson of a legend might have been worth a lazy 7th rounder... but no, apparently not.
Not THAT hairy, honest!
Nathan Noel...Kid outscored MacKinnon's numbers while at St. Mary's and put up pt/game numbers in the QMJHL, leading the Sea Dogs in scoring who were the worst team in the Q last year. No way this kid should have gone undrafted.
Was ranked #59 on Craig Button's overall list. 24 goals, 37 assists, 61 PIMS in 66 games, 7 points in 5 playoff games while getting short changed on ice-time since St. John's ran a 4 line team (uncommon in the CHL). 5'11", 172 so he's not ideal size but not tiny either. I'm no expert but when a guy like Craig Button claims his undraftedness as "inexplicable" thinks its odd. Just a name to keep in the back of your minds maybe.
yeah I remember him being talked about a couple of years go so to fall that hard is pretty telling I would say. It's not like Saint John wasn't given respect/scouted a lot either as two Sea Dogs went in the first round.
Button is probably just pissed because it makes him look bad
He has received in invite to Anaheim's main camp so it will be interesting to see if they give him a contract. I find it interesting when things like this happen. Maybe teams know a guy won't get picked by everyone else so they don't bother drafting him themselves, then just give him a contract after the draft.
I guess one way to look at it is guys like Tyler Johnson (undrafted), Marty St. Louis (undrafted), Tanner Pearson (passed over in 2 drafts before being selected) and of course....Datsyuk (passed over twice before going in the 6th round).
I know scouting has improved drastically but just some names for thought that came to mind.