Journey for prospects continues even after the NHL Draft

There is so much said and written about NHL prospects leading up to the draft, from background stories on the expected top selections to pick-by-pick predictions through the first round.

But what about after a prospect has been selected? What transpires for a newly drafted player once he stands on stage and takes the obligatory photo holding up the team’s sweater?

“It's only the beginning of a very long career," prospect winger Pierre-Luc Dubois reportedly told NHL.com about the draft process. "My dream is to play in the NHL and have a long career in the NHL and win the Stanley Cup. The draft is fun, but it's nothing. You've got to keep moving forward and working hard because you haven't made it yet."

Haven’t made it yet? That’s almost hard to believe with how much weight is put on when a player is selected over the course of one weekend. But there is a whole other road to travel after the pomp and circumstance of the NHL Draft are in the rearview mirror.

For starters, the whirlwind of the draft doesn’t end with being selected. Upper Deck captured the mania for selected players during the 2014 NHL Draft, which was held at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. Players like Aaron Ekblad are shown post-selection, taking many photos and addressing mass clusters of media in the short period of time after being drafted.

While such chaos fades a bit after the weekend concludes — it’s not like the prospects leave the building with a scrum of reporters around them or anything — there is now work to be done for the new team. Blogger Caryn Switaj wrote in a piece for BostonBruins.com that highlighted 2010 draftee Zach Trotman:

What happens after this weekend, though, is what matters most, whether the draftees heard their names called in-person or received phone calls with the good news, and whether they were chosen in the first round or as the final picks. 

Being drafted is just the beginning of a process. 

Many first rounders don’t make it in the NHL. Many later picks work their way to the top.

This holds true for all organizations. The draft is typically followed very closely by development camps, which is yet another test for players to show that they can help the club out at the NHL level — regardless of what round they were selected in. An infographic tweeted out by the San Jose Sharks on Friday was a perfect example of this. Of the 10 players on the current roster who were drafted by San Jose, only three of them were first-round draftees. Joe Pavelski, one of the league’s top scorers and the current captain of Team Teal, was selected 205th overall in the 2003 Entry Draft.