It’s not often that players selected after the third round of the draft make it big in the NHL, but the Anaheim Ducks do have a few success stories worth mentioning.
Since its inception in 1963, the NHL Entry Draft (or the NHL Amature Draft as it was called back then) has been responsible for producing hundreds of NHL stars who have shone brightly in the NHL’s spotlight. Players like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Connor McDavid, Alexander Ovechkin, and many more, have set an incredibly high standard. Even the Anaheim Ducks, in their short 25-year history, have even drafted a few NHL stars; starting with Paul Kariya, Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, and more recently, John Gibson, Rickard Rakell, and Hampus Lindholm.
It is extremely common that an NHL team is comprised of players taken in the first three rounds of the NHL draft. While it is not uncommon for players drafted later to make a name for themselves in the NHL, most late-round draft selections don’t find success at the NHL level or do not make it at all.
There are exceptions to this rule, however, such as Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Henrik Zetterberg, and Theoren Fleury. Each one of these players was drafted in the sixth round or later, but still forged their own path to the NHL and succeeded at doing so.