Ranking the NHL's 5 Most Talented Young Cores
The NHL can be a young man's game, and there are a few teams around the league with impressive young cores that still might have their best days ahead of them.
We are going to take a look at a few of them and rank the five best in the league.
A few things to consider going in:
- Players have to be age 25 or younger to be considered a part of a "young" core.
- Success means more than potential in this ranking. The players and, preferably, the team itself need to have some sort of success. A team having a bunch of young players that has not played well in the NHL is not as impressive as young players who have actually done something. Show us something on the ice.
- These rankings are not necessarily a reflection of where the team sits among the NHL as a whole, and players not considered part of the young core have no bearing on the rankings.
Teams Just Missing the Cut
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Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks are having a better-than-expected season and have two stars who fit the 25-and-under core category in Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. But there is not much depth in youth beyond them, and there are still some concerns as to how sustainable their early-season success is. Good core but not one of the top five.
Anaheim Ducks: Mason McTavish is having a great year and Leo Carlsson looks like he has a chance to be a star in the future. The team has not had much success overall, though, and Trevor Zegras—another key member of the young core—has not had a great start to the season.
Arizona Coyotes: They have been stockpiling draft picks and future assets for years, and they finally found a potential star in Logan Cooley. Clayton Keller is also a top-tier forward.
Chicago Blackhawks: They have Connor Bedard and nobody else does. That is at least worthy of an honorable mention. The rest of the rebuild needs a lot of help, but having somebody like Bedard rapidly changes the long-term outlook.
5. Buffalo Sabres
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The Buffalo Sabres have been one of the biggest disappointments in the NHL this season, and after Wednesday's loss in Colorado, they are just 12-15-3 and have the second-worst points percentage in the Eastern Conference.
Given all the progress they made a year ago, and as close as they came to ending their playoff drought, it has been a pretty stunning regression. Especially when it comes to the team's offense.
All of it has to be a bitter pill for long-suffering (and incredibly loyal) Sabres fans who have been waiting more than 12 years to see playoff hockey return to upstate New York.
For as bad as the season has been as a whole, though, there is still an excellent young core of talent here that does have some significant upside. That's especially true on defense where Rasmus Dahlin, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson are all under 25, are all signed long-term and all have the ability to be stars in the NHL.
Power has not yet taken the step forward that has been expected (at least offensively), but Dahlin is already an impact player offensively and a cornerstone building block.
Along with the blueliners, Devon Levi has No. 1 goalie potential while forwards Casey Mittelstadt, Dylan Cozens and Zach Benson are all 25 or younger and have bright futures ahead of them.
The Sabres have a long way to go and need to get their offense back on track, but this is still one of the youngest teams in the NHL with a pretty deep core of talented players to build around.
4. Ottawa Senators
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The Senators are in a similar position to the Sabres.
On paper, there is a great core of young talent here and a roster full of young stars. They also have most of them signed to long-term deals.
Ottawa has also not found any team success overall and is still at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings.
The difference between the two teams is that the Senators' young players have shown way more in the NHL individually and are being held back by the lack of quality depth around them.
The roster has Jakob Chychrun, Drake Batherson, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Tim Stützle and Jake Sanderson as key players, all of whom are age 25 or younger and signed to long-term deals.
Several of them—Stützle and Tkachuk specifically—are already top-tier offensive stars in the NHL, while the others are productive top-six forwards and top-four defensemen.
Those six players should be the foundation of a long-term contender and are all there for the long haul. They just need more help around them.
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3. Carolina Hurricanes
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The Carolina Hurricanes have been one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference for about five years now, but a lot of their main core is now outside of the age-25 window we are looking at here.
However, there is still another wave of young talent that fits in perfectly and gives them an even longer championship window.
The two best players in that group are Martin Necas and Andrei Svechnikov.
Necas has started to break out the past two years and entering play on Thursday, he has 91 points in 110 regular-season games since the start of the 2022-23 season. Svechnikov has been limited by injury this season, but he is still only 23 and a proven 30-goal scorer with 40-or 50-goal potential in his prime if everything starts to click.
While those two get the most attention, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Seth Jarvis are also worth paying attention to.
The Hurricanes sent shockwaves through the NHL in 2021 when they signed Kotkaniemi away from the Canadiens as a restricted free agent, and then later gave him an eight-year deal when he was still pretty unproven. But he is still only 23 and seems to be coming into his own as a two-way center capable of scoring 20 goals and 50 points.
Jarvis is the youngest player in this group at 21 and also seems to be starting to have a breakout campaign.
These four are potential top-line players and will serve as great complements to Carolina's veteran core.
2. Dallas Stars
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The Dallas Stars were in the Western Conference Final a year ago and look like a top Stanley Cup contender once again.
They have some veteran players driving the bus here (Roope Hintz, Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Mason Marchment), but it's the 25-and-under group that is really fascinating.
Leading the list is Jason Robertson, already an MVP-level player who has rapidly improved offensively every year he has been in the NHL. He's not only one of the most productive forwards in the league, but he is also one of the most creative and entertaining and a must-watch player every Stars game.
This is only the 24-year-old's fourth full season in the league and he has already scored 40 goals two different times. He is just now entering his prime and his best days are still probably ahead of him.
However, that 25-and-under core also contains a franchise goalie in Jake Oettinger and a Norris Trophy-caliber defenseman in Miro Heiskanen.
The wildest thing about that trio? They all came from the same draft class.
Along with them they have young defensemen Nils Lundkvist and Thomas Harley making a name for themselves in the NHL, and another emerging top-line forward talent in Wyatt Johnston.
Johnston is only 20 years old and had an outstanding rookie season (as a 19-year-old) that should have got him way more Calder Trophy consideration than it did.
The Stars don't have many holes in their lineup, and the young guys really give them a huge advantage over other contenders.
1. New Jersey Devils
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When it comes to young talent, the New Jersey Devils simply have an embarrassment of riches.
The list of players age 25 or younger on this team includes Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Luke Hughes and the early debut of No. 2 overall pick Simon Nemec.
Hughes is a true superstar and one of the best offensive players in the NHL, while Hischier and Bratt are already All-Star-level players.
Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Hughes and Bratt are both among the top-35 point producers in the NHL while Hischier is a fantastic two-way center. Mercer and Hughes also look like they are on their way to being stars.
What makes the Devils' core even more impressive is that Hughes, Hischier and Bratt are all signed long-term for a total of just over $22 million per season. That is a steal for the production they generate.
New Jersey is not only one of the best teams in the league with a great future, but it's also one of the most entertaining.
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