HockeyYouth is served in the NHL

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Oilers rookies Taylor Hall (4), Jordan Eberle (14) and Magnus Paajarvi are garnering plenty of attention this season. (John Ulan/Canadian Press)

Every evening on the hockey highlights you'll see one of them. If it's not Edmonton Oilers rookie Jordan Eberle strutting his skill level with a memorable debut NHL goal, maybe you will catch Jeff Skinner with a beauty deke to give the Carolina Hurricanes a shootout win.

There's also Matt Duchene and the youthful Colorado Avalanche or P.K. Subban and his adventurous game with the Montreal Canadiens or the emerging Evander Kane with the Atlanta Thrashers. Yup, the kids are all right and they're bountiful in the NHL these days.

Average age of NHLers:
Season	Ht.	Wt.	Avg.
2010-11	6'1"	204.1	27.8
2009-10	6'1"	204.2	27.8
2008-09	6'1"	204.4	28.0
2007-08	6'1"	203.7	28.0
2006-07	6'1"	204.4	28.0
2005-06	6'1"	204.9	28.4
2003-04	6'1"	204.6	27.9
2002-03	6'1"	204.1	28.1
2001-02	6'1"	200.2	27.5
2000-01	6'1"	202.1	27.8
1999-00	6'1"	199.3	27.2
1998-99	6'1"	201.1	27.3
1997-98	6'1"	200.2	27.0
1996-97	6'1"	198.1	26.9
1995-96	6'1"	196.2	27.0
1994-95	6'1"	196.4	27.4

But even though there are so many teenagers - 18 in fact - as well as rookies and sophomores dotting the league's landscape, would you be surprised to find out that the average age hasn't shifted in the past 15 seasons? (See the chart on the right.)

"That surprises me, too," said Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini, who besides Eberle expects big things from freshmen Taylor Hall and Magnus Paajarvi.

The thoughtful Tambellini has a unique perspective. He not only played in the NHL, he has closely watched the development of his 26-year-old son Jeff, a left-winger with the Vancouver Canucks and the elder Tambellini now is in charge of the Oilers youth movement.

"The perception is that the league is younger," Tambellini said. "It's not just about the average age, there are two things. One, the top young players who come into the game seem to be more physically able to sustain success at young age. Secondly, and more importantly, there seems to be more profile with the younger players on a team.

"These young players are not just fourth liners, waiting for a chance to make their mark. The young players who are gifted and physically ready are playing profile positions. You're seeing these young players playing important positions on hockey clubs." 

The reason for these youngsters being thrust into prominent roles so swiftly goes beyond the belief that young equals cheap in the NHL's new salary cap world. That's not an accurate picture.

Youth has been a factor in the NHL from time-to-time prior to this current era, before the young and restless Chicago Blackhawks won a Stanley Cup with the central figures of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. The average age of the Blackhawks was 27.1 last season.

When Steve Tambellini spent his first full season in the NHL, he was 21 and a member of the 1979-80 New York Islanders. That season, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy and the determined Islanders won their first of four consecutive Stanley Cups. Would it surprise you that the average age of that team was 25.2? When Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and the Edmonton Oilers dethroned the Islanders, the new champs were even younger with an average age at 25.

Lockout revived youth movement

But the league slid away from youthful teams. The 1998-99 Dallas Stars won with a veteran lineup that included a dozen players 30 or older. Three springs later, the Detroit Red Wings raised their third Stanley Cup in six seasons with a senior citizen-like lineup - average age 30.6.

So why hasn't the average age dipped? Well, there still are plenty of 40-something players like Mark Recchi, Mike Modano, Nik Lidstrom, Teemu Selanne and Dwayne Roloson and others in their late 30s. But why the league appears to be younger is the influx of youths playing on the top two lines or the top defence pairings.

According to Tambellini and others in the NHL like Hurricanes GM Jim Rutherford, whose lineup has seven players 22 years or younger, the roots of this trend can be traced to the 2004-05 lockout. Youngsters like Jason Spezza, Mike Cammalleri, Ryan Kesler, Patrice Bergeron, Jay Bouwmeester, Dustin Brown and Zach Parise spent an entire season in the AHL.

When the lockout ended, this group of players won roster spots. Eric Staal and goalie Cam Ward were two members of this group, and both played huge roles in the Hurricanes march to the league title that first post-lockout season.

From that playoff run, the lesson learned was that these youngsters are simply prepared better or groomed better for pro hockey. They spend time in the gym with purpose. They eat right. They are part of elite level programs like Hockey Canada's program of excellence or the United States junior development program in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"From a perspective of player development in terms of individual training, compared to where the kids are now to 20 years ago, it's not even close," Tambellini said. "I'm not saying the young player today has a better hockey mind or better hockey sense. But from the package physically, a young player overall is more ready to sustain success than 20 years ago.

"The science part of it has been incredible, just from the fact that they're so educated as to what the body needs and when it needs it, what the [hockey player] body is supposed to look like as opposed to 15 years ago, when it was all about power and bulk. The science aspect of hockey is not even close to where it was 15-20 years ago."

Science, training part of equation

Rutherford chuckles when asked for a comparison between player training now and when he broke into the NHL with the Red Wings in 1970 at age 21.

"I wasn't ready," Rutherford said. "I probably played in the NHL for three or four years before I felt I was ready. I was only 142 pounds and everybody told me that I wouldn't be strong enough and not be able to play.

"I guess you could say that back then was the start of what you see now. That was when Lloyd Percival started the Fitness Institute in Toronto. I spent a summer there, but that was the only place. Now there are just more opportunities for these players to prepare. People have taken what Lloyd started to a new level."

Rutherford relayed a story about his star-in-waiting, 18-year-old Skinner. He was coming off a season with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL in which he scored 50 goals in 64 regular season games and another 20 in 20 playoff matches. But Skinner did not rest on those accomplishments.

After the Hurricanes smartly snapped up Skinner with the seventh overall selection at the NHL Entry Draft last June at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where Skinner scored his first career goal on Wednesday, he hired retired NHLer Gary Roberts to train him.

"I think some of these high draft picks realize there still is quite a jump to the NHL," Rutherford said. "But they are willing to step up their training, and these [fitness gurus] know so much more about the proper way to train now than we did, to get to that next level."

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