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I remember a few years back some astronomer smugly stating that we had mapped everything within a couple lightyears and there couldn't possibly be anything left out there nearby to find.

The sun is the only star within a couple lightyears. Are you sure it was an astronomer?

It was an article in Astronomy magazine a couple years back.
And he was smug in stating that they'd mapped absolutely everything within several lightyears and there couldn't possibly be anything left out there. (Or words to that effect.)

I chuckled my butt off about it.
Did have a hard time figuring out their definition of a 'couple' of lightyears.
But since they'd mentioned Barnard's Star, I took it to mean out to ten at most.

Makes one wonder why some of those guys are even in the field anyway. If some of them are so sure there isn't anything close in to find anymore...
Nothing would surprise me anymore, with the universe.
I wouldn't be surprised to find that our solar system has a brown dwarf in it way out there.
I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that the oort cloud is quite real and slightly larger than they initially figured.