Since I started writing this newsletter in 2020, I’ve worked with several players who went on to be selected in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft. I’ve also worked with players who were passed over entirely during their first year of eligibility.
Here are three tips for the second group.
1. Make Uncertainty Your Friend
The biggest advantage of being drafted by an NHL team is certainty. Several 2025 picks have already signed Entry Level Contracts laden with signing bonus. Most have a clear plan of where they will be playing hockey for the next few years.
Undrafted players need to choose their own adventure. For some, it means one more year of major junior hockey, then a stint on a NCAA Division I team before starting their pro careers. Others’ journeys may include Canadian University hockey (USports) or time in a non-NHL/AHL professional league on either side of the Atlantic.
Aside from improving as a player, choosing the right environment is the most important controllable factor for young free agents. They need to choose a league that allows them to:
Express their strengths (earn ice time & put up points)
Improve their weaknesses (especially physically and defensively)
Change the narrative as to why they weren’t drafted in the first place
Those are not necessarily simple things for a player to do, but do them right and he’ll significantly raise his stock among NHL teams. Then he can choose his landing spot in the ensuing bidding war.
2. Turn Emotion Into Positive Action
Not getting drafted is a slap in the face. But sometimes pain and shame can be powerful motivators.
“Be so good they can’t ignore you,” comedian and actor Steve Martin once said.
Maybe your build and/or style of play is out of fashion among NHL scouts today.
But what’s to say that four years from now, every team won’t be looking for a player just like you?
In the meantime, just keep getting better.
3. The Grass Isn’t Always Greener
Being drafted is a life-changing experience, but we don’t often notice the other side of the coin.
On June 27th, Caleb Desnoyers is drafted fourth overall by the Utah Mammoth. Ecstasy.
On July 1st, his older brother Elliot (2020 5th rounder) becomes a free agent after not receiving a qualifying offer from the Philadelphia Flyers. Agony.
Setbacks tend to feel worse than achievements feel good. Not all young players understand that phenomenon as well as the Desnoyers family does at the moment.
It’s not to say that Elliot won’t have a long and prosperous pro career. Despite not being retained by PHI, he’s shown respectable production at the AHL level thus far. He’ll just have to reset, recommit to getting better (2) and make use of his newfound opportunities (1).