ahmon
Registered User
Yes, almost every single PPG freshman first rounder has turned into a top 6 player in the NHL. Small sample size but still. It's not an easy league for freshman to dominate, and there's some who were about 0.6ppg who nonethless became very solid players (Wheeler, Kreider, Bjugstad). Here's a list going back to 2004.
0-19pts: Patrick White, Jim O'Brien, Daulton Leveille, Kyle Palmieri, Riley Sheahan, Kevin Hayes, Tyler Biggs, Mark Jankowski
20-25pts: Kris Chucko, Blake Wheeler, Jack Skille, Louis Leblanc, Chris Kreider, Nick Bjugstad, Beau Bennett, Brock Nelson
26-35pts: Drew Stafford, Andrew Cogliano, Kyle Turris, JVR, Colin Wilson, Joe Colborne, Charlie Coyle, Alex Tuch, Nick Schmaltz
36+pts: Travis Zajac, TJ Oshie, Jonathan Toews, Phil Kessel, Kyle Okposo, Max Pacioretty, Jordan Schroeder, Jaden Schwartz, Dylan Larkin, Jack Eichel
Gaudreau was also PPG in his draft+1 freshman year.
And to add to that, quality of hockey in the US has risen a lot in the last decade. I would argue its much more impressive to put up PPG in 2015 than say in 2005 for an 18 year old.
Maybe a lazy comparison, but I say if you can get PPG in the NCAA as an 18 year old, you can probably comfortably score over 100 pts in the CHL in the same year.