Best undrafted players (2024)

[Random schmoe]

I don't know a lot about draft eligibility, overagers, basically who is eligible and when they're eligible. My main point/question is, are there any guys who went undrafted who are now free agents and could be - good enough to maybe be - signed to a professional deal? (I guess including ATO/PTO followed by a contract.)
I'd assume some of those guys may get invited to dev camps for evaluation.

 

[BigHitter67]

Funny you are saying this right after the season where the best two Ds were indeed under 6ft

Yup .. as i said if you are under 6ft you have to be lights out offensively which Makar and Hughes obviously are ..But in general the league experiment with the small D is over! Just look at the backend of recent Cup winners and scan the list of D drafted yesterday .

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Funny you are saying this right after the season where the best two Ds were indeed under 6ft

True. For whatever reason after the middle of the fourth round (maybe earlier) it became a contest to draft tall players from around the world - many with little or no production offensively to this point.

If you go strictly by the CS rankings (by no means the definitive source but a decent measuring stick), Minnesota was able to get the 8th and 17th ranked European players in the fourth (Kiviharju) and and fifth (Soini) rounds respectively.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

From Sweden

Zetterberg with the best overall point season ever(5th ever in PPG) in Sweden U18 national team

Bodin, 6'4 216 good skater, decent numbers

Sterner 6'3 194, good J20 numbers

tthose are biggest omissions. Also Crookes, Hesselvall

Bonus Hjalte Kruse Thomsen from Denmark. Almost PPG in J20, 6'0

For whatever reason, both Sweden and the QMJHL were somewhat ignored for the first half of the draft while the OHL and USHL did well. Could be cyclical or may be other factors (more high end Canadian players are going the college route - as are some of the top players from Europe).

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Western Hockey League goalies Lukas Matecha and Dawson Cowan were ranked third and fifth amongst North American goalies but neither was selected.

Conversely, there was just one Russian goalie listed in the European rankings but six others were selected - including Dmitry Gamzin in the fourth round by the Islanders.

 

[Hockeyville USA]

I don't know a lot about draft eligibility, overagers, basically who is eligible and when they're eligible. My main point/question is, are there any guys who went undrafted who are now free agents and could be - good enough to maybe be - signed to a professional deal? (I guess including ATO/PTO followed by a contract.)
I'd assume some of those guys may get invited to dev camps for evaluation.

Kenta Isogai would be one who can be signed

 

[awegrzyn]

Aidan Park

Was he wearing 18 at SSM? If so, then there is a reason why he went undrafted.

 

[Kshahdoo]

I thought Schuchinov would go 100%

He didn't look great vs Demidov...

 

[SW2024]

Yup .. as i said if you are under 6ft you have to be lights out offensively which Makar and Hughes obviously are ..But in general the league experiment with the small D is over! Just look at the backend of recent Cup winners and scan the list of D drafted yesterday .

What I never understand in these discussions is that 2in can make such a huge difference. Sorry!
Not speaking about 10in, but 2 only. Come on…. Someone @6ft does not trigger any discussion, whereas as soon as 2in (!!) get deducted: “Oh, no, this guy is way too short”

 

[Hinterland]

Western Hockey League goalies Lukas Matecha and Dawson Cowan were ranked third and fifth amongst North American goalies but neither was selected.

Conversely, there was just one Russian goalie listed in the European rankings but six others were selected - including Dmitry Gamzin in the fourth round by the Islanders.

I expected nothing else. Cowan is small, a late 05 birthday and his back half of the season just wasn't very good.

Matecha is an overager and his performances (or lack thereof) since christmas are even more of a head scratcher. He was well on track to be one of the top goalies in the draft but he tanked 2024 completely and finally even stopped playing. The CHL top prospects game was a rare exception. I'm still not sure what happened but he was never gonna get drafted after that kind od 2024.

However, speaking of Czech WHL overager goalies, I'm surprised nobody took a chance on Jan Spunar. With the injury he suffered I'm not sure what more he could have done. Mature, rock solid, big, mobile goalie, similar to Harrison Meneghin. But then again, Meneghin went very late himself. Goalies are voodoo but those kind of prospects I wouldn't be shocked to see in the NHL one day.

 

[Frk It]

Marcus Kearsey and Quinn Kennedy