Most rookies on a good team? Best young teams?

[drive45]

Islander fan (occasionaly) thinking about next year already (aquired habit).

Players who have legitimate shot to make the team as rookies next year:

Ryan Strome, Kirill Kabanov, Kirill Petrov, Calvin de Haan, and Matt Donovan. Plus, they could possibly send Nino Niederreiter back to Jrs. this year and bring him up next year.

They won't all make it, of course, but the ones that do will be surrounded by guys that are pretty young themselves.

So my questions to the HoH board are these:

What was the most rookies on a good team? "Good" is open to interpretation, but it at least means playoffs.

What were the best young teams, teams that didn't have very much of the 'veteran leadership' we always hear so much about?

Click to read more...

 

[GuineaPig]

Philly?

Or do you mean historically?

 

[drive45]

historically

I meant historically, but I'll take a look at PHL's roster... they have 2, Couturier and Read. Someone has to have had more than that and still done well, at some point.

 

[BM67]

1999-00 Devils had rookies Gomez, Madden, Rafalski and White on a Cup winner.

 

[drive45]

thanks

1999-00 Devils had rookies Gomez, Madden, Rafalski and White on a Cup winner.

that's the kind of stuff I was looking for. Let me go look and see what kind of veteran leadership they had; back in a sec... yeah those guys were mixed in with a lot of veterans, particularly Lemieux and Stevens, so that's a good answer for my first question, but not as much for the 2nd q.

 

[SaveHextall]

I meant historically, but I'll take a look at PHL's roster... they have 2, Couturier and Read. Someone has to have had more than that and still done well, at some point.

The Flyers have played 5 rookies this year: Rinaldo, Read, Couturier, Zolnierczyk, and Schenn.

Aside from Schenn (who has played 1 game), all have been very impressive.

 

[Big Phil]

One of the best young teams ever would be the 1982 Oilers. All the stars were at least sophomores by then but I think they classify as a young team.

The 2007 Pens had Malkin and Staal as rookies as well as a 2nd year Crosby

The 1987 Kings had Robitaille, Carson (when he was good) and Duchesne - all rookies

 

[drive45]

1980-1981 Edmonton Oilers

One of the best young teams ever would be the 1982 Oilers. All the stars were at least sophomores by then but I think they classify as a young team.

The 2007 Pens had Malkin and Staal as rookies as well as a 2nd year Crosby

The 1987 Kings had Robitaille, Carson (when he was good) and Duchesne - all rookies

80-81 Oil is the kind of team I was looking for: Gretzky and Mess in their 2nd NHL yr, with Kurri, Anderson and Coffey all in their rookie years, and none of the major contributors over 30.

 

[BM67]

The dynasty Isles were a young team at least at the start of their run.

Bossy 23, Gillies 25, Goring 30, Morrow 23 (rookie), Nystrom 27, Persson 25, Potvin 26, Smith 29, Sutter 19 (rookie), Tonelli 22, Trottier 23

They were younger and almost as good a year or two before that.

 

[jkrx]

A team that came to mind were the Philadelphia Flyers anno '85. Cup finals with unders 25 year olds like Kerr, Lindbergh, Craven, Tocchet, Zezel, Propp, Sutter and a rookie coach (Keenan) and GM (Clarke).

We can go further back of course and re-visit the 1950s Detroit Red Wings. Gordie Howe, Lindsay, Sawchuk, Lumley, Fogolin, Pavelich, Black and Red Kelly. Amazing team.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

'86 habs. their rookies were patrick roy, claude lemieux, brian skrudland, stephane richer, kjell dahlin, and mike lalor, with first round draft pick shayne corson getting a couple of regular season games. chelios, petr svoboda, mike mcphee, backup goalie steve penney, and tom kurvers were in their second years-- chelios and penney were all-rookie team members the year before.

lafleur and shutt had retired the year before, tremblay didn't make it through the regular season, and the remaining dynasty guys gainey and robinson were no longer conn smythe material.

their veterans were a good group, but hardly the core of a top tier contender: bobby smith, mats naslund, guy carbonneau, rick green, craig ludwig, ryan walter.

but what a crop of young talent to come in. most of those guys, plus gaston gingras (a big league puck mover who bounced between the bigs and the minors because he was soft and a defensive liability), won the calder cup together the year before.

nothing needs to be said about the addition of a conn smythe winning goalie.

claude lemieux, who didn't become a regular until the playoffs led the team in goals, including some huge ones.

anytime a team can add a guy like skrudland, who can step in as a rookie and play tough defensive bottom six minutes against anyone in the league, that's huge. comparable to the addition of john madden in NJ, mentioned above.

future 50 goal scorer richer scored 20 goals as a rookie, but didn't do a whole lot in the playoffs; still, his talent as a shooter did lend legitimacy to their PP and opened up space for others.

dahlin is another guy who had a better regular season (70 points, all rookie team, third in calder voting) than playoffs. he was a one year (regular) season wonder, but he played on a first line with naslund and smith and played some role in naslund's all-star career year (though obviously the two 100 point scorers on his line did more to help dahlin than he did for them).

lalor played a regular shift and didn't look out of place. like skrudland, when you can add a rookie to a good team and his minutes can be reasonably unsheltered, that makes all the difference.

on top of that, you have a minute-munching future hall of fame defenseman two years away from a norris trophy, as well as enticing young offensive defensemen in svoboda and kurvers (who split the sixth man/PP specialist role with the much-maligned gaston gingras in the playoffs; as i recall, that spot probably would have been svoboda's to keep, but he got injured). also, another lunch pail grinder in mike mcphee helped carry on the habs' defensive tradition from the bowman era.

best example i can think of where a huge influx of young talent revitalizes a good veteran team and puts them over the top (80s flyers come close, but they never won it all). how many franchises can weather the loss of almost an entire dynasty roster of hall of famers over six years, and rebuild to win a cup? the big name guys obviously were huge, but i think mcphee, skrudland, lalor, and those guys (i include carbo and ludwig in this group) were the difference between a good team and a contender that went to two finals in four years.

 

[begbeee]

'86 habs

This team immediatly comes to my mind.

OP demands at least playoffs, so I throw in 1987-88 LA Kings:
21 Luc Robitaille 111
19 Jimmy Carson 107
26 Bernie Nicholls 78
21 Steve Duchesne 55
24 Bobby Carpenter 52

Only guy who provided leadership was 31 years old Dave Taylor.

 

[brianscot]

The ever bewildering and under achieving early 80's Minnesota North Stars made their run to the finals in 1981 finals with 8 players age 22 or under.

Bobby Smith, Steve Payne, Neal Broten, Tom McCarthy, Dino Ciccarelli, Curt Giles, Craig Hartsburg, and Don Beaupre.

However, 30 year old Gilles Meloche played the bulk of the playoffs games.

 

[crobro]

The ever bewildering and under achieving early 80's Minnesota North Stars made their run to the finals in 1981 finals with 8 players age 22 or under.

Bobby Smith, Steve Payne, Neal Broten, Tom McCarthy, Dino Ciccarelli, Curt Giles, Craig Hartsburg, and Don Beaupre.

However, 30 year old Gilles Meloche played the bulk of the playoffs games.

tht was a great team and a great run

 

[Hawksfan2828]

How about the 09 Blackhawks?

They had 106 points that season and went to the WCF..

They had 25 players that played at least a game that year that were 25 years or younger. Many played a large role in their success such as Toews, Kane, Keith, Seabrook, Versteeg, Byfuglien, Ladd, Hammer, Wiznewski (traded) etc... Neimi was on that team as well.

Of course a year later the Hawks won the cup and all the aforementioned players were still 25 or younger. Keith was 26 but that is still pretty young.

http://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/CHI/2009.html