The St. Louis Blues went to great lengths to make sure nobody knew about Colton Parayko way back when.

Parayko, the 22-year-old rookie defenceman from St. Albert, Alta., who scored a goal in the Blues' Game 7 victory over Chicago on Monday night, was a complete unknown ahead of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft and the team did its best to keep it that way.

We purposely only scouted him in faraway places - Bill Armstrong

"He was unknown and raw," Blues director of amateur scouting Bill Armstrong said in an interview.

The club's real pursuit of him started, evidently, with a tip to St. Louis general manager Doug Armstrong.

He was informed by a colleague about Parayko, who was a growing defenceman who played for the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.

Scouted in secret

The Blues saw him play in a second-tier tournament in Russia and concluded, at the urging of team scout Dan Ginnell, that they couldn't let another team catch the scent.

They decided not to scout Parayko anywhere near Calgary or Edmonton or those places he would play most.

"We purposely only scouted him in faraway places," Bill Armstrong said.

Their secrecy paid off: Parayko didn't even make the NHL Central Scouting's final draft rankings.

The Blues were intrigued by his potential and considered using their second-round pick on him. St. Louis finally opted to select him in the third round with the 86th overall selection.

St. Louis has become one of the top teams in the NHL with shrewd drafting of this kind, proof that clubs don't always need high picks to succeed at the draft.

Parayko just one example

Parayko, who scored nine goals and had 33 points as a first-year defenceman, is just one example.

The Blues snagged Vladimir Tarasenko, a 40-goal-scorer in the regular season, with the 16th overall pick in 2010, and Robby Fabbri, an 18-goal-scorer as a 20-year-old, with the 21st overall pick in 2014.

The roster, which produced the third-best record this past regular season, has many gems found deep in the draft, including captain David Backes (62nd overall in 2003), leading playoff scorer Jaden Schwartz (14th overall in 2010), and netminder Jake Allen (34th in 2008).

Parayko, meanwhile, is an imposing force at six foot five and more than 200 pounds.

The blue-liner's skating has improved, he has a big shot and is already playing important minutes with impressive results.

He registered the second-best puck possession mark on the Blues, one of the NHL's top puck possession teams.

"His upside keeps going up," Armstrong said.