Everything I've read about his character is positive. My only theory is that scouts wrote him off because Wong and Estephan put up huge numbers without being great prospects so there was some unconscious bias at work in disregarding him as well. Then again, Estephan got drafted in the 6th a couple of years prior so who knows?
I’d still expect someone to at least throw a 7th round pick at him. I’d say nothing about him stood out but he stood out enough at the prospect stuff to get a contract. He hasn’t missed much if any time to injuries either. Nothing stood out as destructively wrong with his game from what I saw.
I guess every team just screwed up multiple times until the Pens fell ass backwards into some luck. Maybe the team wasn’t scouted extensively and his numbers didn’t stand out enough to matter. Therefore scouts missed a player close to breaking out.
Bellerive's stocky, too. He also has some draft pedigree, being the 2nd overall pick in the WHL bantam draft. So it's kind of weird he didn't at least get chosen in the 5th-7th round range.
Yeah, stocky is a good description, He’s listed as slightly smaller than Crosby is listed at. Some say 5’10” and others says 5’11” 190-194lb. He’s not Crosby but that’s not a discouragingly small player and was young enough to potentially eke out some more height. He could still put on some more muscle.
I think I read an article or whatever about him failing to live up to that whl draft pedigree hurting him. It still shouldn’t have meant not getting drafted.
It’s just really, really bizarre that no one drafted him. Lucky for the Pens who I guess has him somewhere on some list.