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Rangers prospect Patrik Virta grew up surrounded by hockey

In 2017, the New York Rangers used their seventh-round pick on a player few of us knew at the time. Patrik Virta went undrafted twice before, but teams go with overagers regularly in the later rounds. The philosophy behind it is, that while the ceiling might not be as high, they are already at a level most other seventh-rounders won’t even reach.

When Virta was 18, he played for HPK in the Junior A SM-Liiga, putting up 75 points in 43 games in the regular season (second overall in points), and adding another 15 in 12 postseason games.