By Byron Bader



In the third round of the 2016 draft, the Calgary Flames selected a smallish defender out of the U.S. National Development program named Adam Fox. His relatively diminutive stature (5-foot-10, 185 pounds) is likely what dropped Fox to 66th overall that June because the player had already managed sterling offensive results to that point.



Between 2014-16, for example, Fox set a record for assists in a single season for the National Team Development Program (NTDP) with 59. He also finished third all-time amongst NTDP players with 83 career assists. Of course, the annals of the NHL draft is littered with smaller guys who put up big numbers in lesser leagues, only to find themselves unable to translate that success at higher levels.



That wasn’t a problem for Fox in his freshman college season, however. In his draft-plus-one (D+1) year for Harvard, Fox put up 40-points in 35-games, a point-per-game pace of 1.14. That rate for a 18-19-year-old...