College UFAs are always a tempting draw. It’s all of the free development without any of the draft pick risk. Pretty much found money.
But you should really never forget that, occasionally, there’s some perfectly valid reasons that these players did not originally get drafted. They are often low percentage guys who appear to be at least worth a contract due to some promising play. Recent Flames and Flames prospects like Josh Jooris, Garnet Hathaway, and Ryan Lomberg are some decent examples of college UFAs you can find: players who are occasionally useful fourth liners but not much else.