You already know the top picks. The sure things. The juniors everyone circled in red. This article is about NHL Draft steals who outperformed expectations and became franchise cornerstones. It focuses on the names buried deep on draft boards who forced their way into a franchise’s story and never left.
These 10 NHL Draft Steals were taken late, questioned, overlooked, or flat out ignored. Then they spent years dragging teams into relevance, shaping identities, and making scouts look very smart or very sick.
The list is for fans who care about value, development, and how smart teams win on the margins. Late round means fifth round or later. Cornerstone means central to winning, culture, or both.
Context: Why Draft Steals Matter in Hockey
In a hard cap league, missing on early picks hurts, but missing everywhere hurts more. The best front offices survive it because they turn late picks into real players, not camp stories.
A true draft steal does more than chip in depth minutes. He tilts the value scale. He lets a team spend money elsewhere, trade from surplus, or build a room around someone they barely invested in on day one.
When you hit late, you are not just lucky. You are seeing something others missed: a brain, a layer of compete, a body that will grow, or a game that translates when the lights get hot.
| Player | Draft Slot | Cornerstone Team | Proof He Outperformed Expectations | One Line Hook |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pavel Datsyuk | 171st overall | Detroit Red Wings | Two Cups, 918 points, elite two way force | Magic hands from a forgotten pick who rewrote what skill looks like. |
| Henrik Lundqvist | 205th overall | New York Rangers | 459 wins, Vezina, face of the franchise in net | A seventh round ticket who turned Madison Square Garden into his stage. |
| Henrik Zetterberg | 210th overall | Detroit Red Wings | Conn Smythe, captain, near point per game peak years | The quiet star who held a dynasty together from the shadows. |
| Pekka Rinne | 258th overall | Nashville Predators | Vezina, jersey retired, all time leader for the club | An extra round flyer who became the soul of a new market. |
| Joe Pavelski | 205th overall | San Jose Sharks, Dallas Stars | More than 1000 points, clutch playoff scoring | The late pick who never stopped tipping games in his favor. |
| Jamie Benn | 129th overall | Dallas Stars | Art Ross, long time captain, power forward driver | A mid round swing who turned into Dallas heartbeat on ice. |
| Connor Hellebuyck | 130th overall | Winnipeg Jets | Vezina trophies, heavy workload seasons at elite level | The patience pick who built an entire playoff window in goal. |
| Andrei Markov | 162nd overall | Montreal Canadiens | Near 1000 games, power play engine, steady top pair role | The brain on the blue line that fixed chaos for a generation. |
| Mark Stone | 178th overall | Vegas Golden Knights | Cup lift as captain, elite two way winger | The slow skater label who became the smartest player in the room. |
| Jared Spurgeon | 156th overall | Minnesota Wild | Captain, minute eater, franchise games lead on defense | The undersized afterthought who grew into the Wild standard. |
The Draft Steal Cornerstones
1. NHL Draft Steal Pavel Datsyuk
The Detroit story starts in a small Moscow rink, where Hakan Andersson went to see someone else and left thinking about a skinny center who never lost the puck. Years later, the 171st pick is dancing through defenders in red and white while Joe Louis Arena sounds like it is levitating. That shift where he strips Cory Perry clean at the line then walks through bodies still feels like a magic trick.
Datsyuk put up 918 points in 953 regular season games, won 2 Cups, 3 Selke trophies, and 4 Lady Byng awards. For a sixth rounder, that is not value, that is theft. Among players taken that late, almost nobody touches that production or three-dimensional impact.
Mike Babcock once called him “the best two way player in the world, for sure.” Teammates talk about him staying on the ice long after practice, working on edges and strips like a scientist in skates. Fans still send around the same clips, and you can hear it in their voice: this was art.
The legacy is simple. Any time a scout bangs the table for a smaller, smarter, late blooming center, they are chasing their own version of Pavel.
2. NHL Draft Steal Henrik Lundqvist
The 205th pick walks into Madison Square Garden, hair perfect, eyes locked in, and for a decade plus makes the loudest building in hockey hold its breath on command. You remember the pads, the stance, the chant that rolled down from the blue seats. Hen rik. Over and over.
Lundqvist finished with 459 wins, all Ranger records in net, and became the winningest European born goalie in league history. Seventh rounders are not supposed to become that. Most never get a game. He gave New York 11 straight seasons with 20 or more wins and Vezina level play.
Glen Sather once talked about seeing him in Sweden and knowing there was something different there. A fan said, “He carried this team on his back for a decade,” and that is not exaggeration, it is the lived experience of playoff springs where he was the only reason the run stayed alive.
His presence raised standards. Every young goalie who came through that room watched how he prepared and understood the bar. The Rangers spent a seventh-round pick and got a face of the franchise.
3. Henrik Zetterberg Silent Franchise Anchor
Game 6 in 2008 is the picture. Zetterberg dogging Sidney Crosby in the slot one second, then ripping a shot through traffic the next. The 210th pick from a small Swedish town wearing the C and owning the biggest moments for a flagship franchise.
Zetterberg delivered 960 points across his career and a Conn Smythe in that 2008 run, doing it in all situations. He was never the loudest star on paper, but for a player taken that late to become a first line driver, primary matchup forward, and Cup winning playoff monster is off the chart surplus.
He did it with a slow burn kind of presence. The posture on the bench. The small nods to young teammates. The way the building relaxed a little when he had the puck on the wall. You felt safe as a fan when 40 was out there.
His partnership with Datsyuk gave Detroit a late round core that every modern contender wants to copy and almost none can.
4. NHL Draft Steal Pekka Rinne
There is this image of Rinne in gold pads stretching across what feels like half the zone, Bridgestone Arena vibrating, people in that building fully sure their guy will get one more save. Not bad for pick 258.
Rinne retired as Nashville leader in games, wins, and shutouts in net, won a Vezina, and finished top tier in his era by any advanced look at workload versus results. When you compare him to the average ninth round level selection, he is in a different universe.
Predators leadership has called him one of the people who defined the organization. NHL Off the ice, he was everywhere in the community. On the ice, he dragged an expansion market into serious team territory. Ask anyone who sat behind the net during those peak years. The place shook.
His number now hangs alone in that building. One of the clearest cases of a franchise that did not just find a starter late. They found its heartbeat.
5. Joe Pavelski Seventh Round Lifeline
The kid from Plover goes 205th and ends up wearing letters for two franchises that leaned on him when things got tight. You can pick your moment. The early Sharks runs, the tips in front, the storybook nights in Dallas when he kept finding ways to score in games that already felt lost.
Pavelski cleared 1000 career points and became the leading playoff goal scorer among players born in the United States. Seventh round forwards almost never become that level of consistent driver at even strength, on the power play, and in leadership metrics.
Teammates and coaches talk about how he sees deflections before the puck even leaves the point. Another small thing: he was the guy stopping to sign, talking through plays with kids at camps, showing up early to video. You feel that through fan bases in both San Jose and Dallas.
His success is the textbook argument for never dismissing a late pick with feel, brains, and touch just because the frame or speed is not perfect.
6. Jamie Benn From Kelowna To Captain
Every team has stories about the one they almost missed. Dallas nearly did more than that. Benn went 129th, behind a long list of shinier junior resumes. Then he shows up, leans into contact, and starts bullying games in a way that never looks rushed.
He turned into an Art Ross winner in 2014 to 2015, long time captain, and the competitive center of a team that spent years orbiting his edge. Compare that to the average fifth rounder. Most are depth. He became the player you build your forward identity around.
Behind the scenes, staff still talk about his straight face humor and the way he can flip a room from loose to locked in without saying much. Fans in Dallas know that slouched glide is a tell. He is measuring something.
His arc is the reminder that size, touch, and stubborn will turn a mid-round swing into the spine of an era.
7. NHL Draft Steal Connor Hellebuyck
Picture the Jets without him for a decade. It gets dark fast. The 130th pick out of UMass Lowell grows into a workhorse who erases defensive mistakes for fun and turns a small market team into a regular season problem for everyone.
By 2025 he has multiple Vezina trophies and a Hart, with a 47 win, 8 shutout season that put him in rare company for goalies carrying that kind of load. Relative to where he was taken, his value curve is absurd. Late round goalies almost never sustain that level and volume at the same time.
You watch his posture in big games. Calm, small movements, like he refuses to give shooters any extra story to read. Another fan commented, “He is the reason this window exists at all,” which might even be underselling it.
Long term, he resets how teams think about development timelines in net. The Jets took a patient swing and ended up with a franchise pillar you just do not find in that range.
8. Andrei Markov Montreal Blue Line Brain
Ninth round in some other sports is a trivia question. For Montreal, pick 162 in 1998 became the quiet engineer of their back end for a generation. The defining memory is not one play. It is years of clean exits, patient blue line holds, subtle sticks that never made highlight packs but saved games.
Markov produced more than 570 points and close to 1000 games for the Canadiens, ranking near the top of their defensemen in both. For a late round defender, that blend of offense, minutes, and trust is nearly unmatched.
Teammates and coaches often framed him as the one who saw the ice two steps ahead. You could feel that from the seats. When he walked the line on the power play, the building leaned forward because it trusted his choices.
His legacy is in every young Montreal defender who grew into the job with him as the standard. A low-cost pick who became the model.
9. Mark Stone From Slow Skater To Star
When Ottawa took Stone at 178, scouts questioned the feet. They did not question much else, but in this sport, that is usually enough to scare people. Years later, he is wearing a C in Vegas, lifting the Cup, and picking passes off like he knows the script.
Stone broke in as a play driver in Ottawa, then became the emotional and tactical core of the Golden Knights, including a Cup run where he closed it out with a hat trick in the final game. Late sixth round forwards who end up Conn Smythe level leaders on a new franchise are almost not real.
He is one of those players you appreciate more when you lock in on every shift. The stick detail, the reads, the sneaky snarl in scrums. Look, maybe I have rewatched those Vegas playoff games too often, but you can feel his fingerprints all over them.
Stone’s rise is a case study in why you bet late on brain, hands, and compete, even if the stride needs work.
10. Jared Spurgeon Undersized But Unshakable
Spurgeon is the player every undersized kid should have on repeat. Drafted 156th, not signed, brought into Minnesota on what was basically a long shot look. Then he just never went away.
He grew into Wild captain, heavy minute driver, and franchise leader in games on the blue line, all while playing a smart, efficient style that ages well in the numbers. That kind of outcome from that draft position is off the chart.
He once said he “just wanted an opportunity.” That is exactly how he plays. No drama, no need for extra attention, just clean touches, brave blocks, smart sticks at the back post. I have watched that poke check on a two on one in Winnipeg more times than I want to admit.
His story hits a nerve with fans in Minnesota because it matches their idea of the team. Underestimated, stubborn, better than you think once you look closely.
What Comes Next
There are more late picks brewing right now, sitting on third pairs or backing up in small markets, waiting for one long run of trust to change everything. Front offices know how thin the line is. You hit on a Datsyuk or a Lundqvist once and it buys you years.
A fan said, “Lists like this make you wonder which kid we are ignoring tonight,” and that is the right instinct. Smart teams ask that every draft and every camp.
The real question now: which overlooked name becomes the next player a franchise cannot imagine life without.
I bounce between stadium seats and window seats, chasing games and new places. Sports fuel my heart, travel clears my head, and every trip ends with a story worth sharing.
