Every draft has a star that was selected a lot later than their future NHL performance suggests. Sometimes scouts just honestly miss something while other times, it’s a case of the player peaking at a later age. In most cases, it’s injuries that prevent them from playing a lot in their draft year, decreasing the sample size teams have to judge their play. However, the teams who select them anyway benefit from it down the road, and the Montreal Canadiens are in a good position to do this with Hendrix Lapierre.
The NHL draft year is the most important season for most players hoping to make the jump to the big league.