Hockey development is a marathon, not a sprint.
The history of the sport is filled with individual stories of late bloomers, players who weren’t high draft picks or top prospects, but guys who nevertheless went on to long and, in some cases, highly impactful careers.
For scouts, their job doesn’t consist solely of watching 17-year-olds in their first year of draft eligibility. Rather, a large part of the job is keeping tabs on anyone who catches their eye at various points, knowing full well that a player who flashes genuine potential in any given game just might keep getting better and begin to actualize that potential on a consistent basis.