The best way to build a successful NHL team is through the draft. Astute scouting and drafting, especially in the later rounds of the draft, can make all the difference between success and failure for organizations.
However, with this being common knowledge, and every team initially receiving the same number of draft picks every year, what methods and strategies can teams and their scouting staffs deploy to gain an advantage over other clubs?
One common plan of action is recognizing and exploiting what are now sometimes referred to as “draft inefficiencies.” What those are, basically, are common trends or patterns that regularly lead to strong results, but ones that are still underutilized by most teams.