One of them scored a Stanley Cup-winning goal in June.

Another is the top goal-producer ever at his position and was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame last month.

Three have cracked the accompanying list of the top 10 prospects on the Penguins' organizational depth chart.

So while players taken in the middle and late rounds of the NHL entry draft usually don't generate as much instant heat as first-rounders such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby -- does anyone recall getting worked up when, say, the Penguins invested a fourth-round choice in Tyler Kennedy in 2004? -- they can have a major impact at this level.

Max Talbot certainly did back in June, when he scored both goals in the Penguins' 2-1 victory against Detroit in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. And Luc Robitaille did for a lot of winters as he was piling up 668 goals, a record for left wingers.

And Penguins officials are cautiously optimistic that low-profile draftees like Luca Caputi, Dustin Jeffrey and Alex Velischek will make a meaningful contribution in the NHL someday, too.

Naturally, not every player taken after the early rounds (or even during them) reaches the NHL. There probably are at least as many manning drive-through windows as playing pro hockey five years after they were chosen.

Nonetheless, turning up NHL-caliber talent in the fourth round and later is critical for teams that want to be consistent contenders. That's especially true in the salary-cap era, because homegrown talent tends to be less expensive, at least for a while, than players acquired in trades or via free agency.

Projecting how a teenaged player will develop is difficult. Doing it with the prospects left after those with obvious assets and potential are off the board is even tougher.

"The whole draft is pretty much playing a hunch," said Jason Botterill, the Penguins' assistant general manager. "Especially in the later rounds."

It can be done, however, if scouts are diligent, patient -- and lucky.

Consider the case of Jeffrey, who went unclaimed in his first year of eligibility. When that happens to a guy, a lot of scouts write him off as a prospect.

The Penguins didn't and were rewarded with the rights to a guy who looks as if he could be an effective role player in the NHL.

"A guy like Dustin Jeffrey went through the draft once," Botterill said. "Most teams are going to write him off [at that point and] I give our scouts credit that they at least kept their mind open.

"We selected him in the sixth round, and he turned out to be a great selection."

The Penguins are hoping for similar scenarios with Velischek, a fifth-rounder who is at Providence but was playing high school hockey in New Jersey at this time a year ago, and Nicholas D'Agostino, their seventh-rounder in 2008.

Regional scout Dave McNamara saw something he liked in D'Agostino and eventually sold management on choosing him, and regional scout Jim Madigan did the same with Velischek.

"You're not going to be perfect on all of those [selections], but it's the job of our head scout, Jay Heinbuck, to really home in on it and listen to your regional scouts, who have watched these guys, day in and day out," Botterill said.

He added that while the Penguins don't seek a specific quality in mid- and late-round prospects -- aside from the skating ability needed to be effective in coach Dan Bylsma's up-tempo system -- they do want to see some trait that goes beyond the ordinary.

"Is there one [specific] element, [such as] skating or hockey sense that we have to have?" Botterill said. "No. But you have to have one really strong element. That might be speed. That might be hockey sense. That might be toughness."

Or a prospect could have several of those assets, and still not work out. For all the time, effort and money spent on scouting, the selections, especially those in the later rounds, come with no promises.

"We understand that we're picking 17- or 18-year-old kids who are a long way away," Botterill said.

"It's a big step to get drafted, obviously, but there are how many more steps before they become a National Hockey League player?"

Let alone a Stanley Cup winner. Or a Hall of Famer.

Penguins Plus, a blog by Dave Molinari and Shelly Anderson, is featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.