The first round of the NHL draft gets most of the attention, and understandably so. It's where the top prospects get selected and drafting the right player can change the entire course of a franchise. We previously did live grades for each first-round selection, and after even the top 20 or so picks, the draft can become a crapshoot.
There are still six other rounds afterwards, and those picks also matter. Building team depth or uncovering a diamond in the rough can be the difference between a good and great team. It's impossible to imagine that the Tampa Bay Lightning win their back-to-back Stanley Cups had they not grabbed Nikita Kucherov (2011) and Brayden Point (2014) in the second and third rounds, respectively.