As a rule, I don't necessarily disagree with the first part. But you have to have a real process as a scout and scouting team. For me, I really went far down the road on Livanavage because of his production. I had to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Because, frankly, he never got close for me. He was a wire to wire ND and I slept like a baby about it (that is, in the USHL - I dropped him from my watchlist after).
If a player like Keohane (not saying him exactly) is a more raw, more unproductive prospect BUT has some projectable tools, I'm more likely to go there because I'm under the impression that JL is dead in the water. The game happens on the ice and the stats get totaled up after. So it's nice if you get a player eval and production rate that makes sense. But you really have to be on your toes as a scout about players and production rates that don't match one way or the other. And frankly, that's where you see the skill of talent evaluation really come in to play.
Re: trade chip. That's where I think it doesn't make sense. This player has been passed over for 400+ picks. It's going to be at least another 100 more in three months, right? Conservatively, 10 clubs have lost any sort of finite track on him at this point. Several more have him firmly on their ND list I presume. So, the small handful (and maybe it's 1, who knows) of clubs that have him on their watchlist or their OA list (if applicable) leaves you a really small network of teams where you can move him to in the first place...and that's only if he somehow explodes 12 months, 24 months after you pick him...and if he does that, then you just keep him and you take that scout out for a nice steak haha