Welcome to the first edition of my top 100 NHL players under the age of 25, based on talent assessment of who I believe will have the best NHL careers. This ranking is not based on how well a player will perform in the 2017-18 season.



We are potentially entering a golden age for young players in the NHL, analogous to where we were coming out of the lockout when players like Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin were lighting up the league. Three of the top four players on my board were teenagers this past season and the one who wasn’t (Jack Eichel) was a fantastic player as a teenager two seasons ago. Connor McDavid is in his own tier, but I consider Auston Matthews/Patrik Laine/Eichel as a tier and mostly interchangeable.



To qualify a player needs to have played at least 25 NHL games in one season, or 50 career games, and be under the age of 25 by September 15, 2017. This means Nino Niederreiter, who turned 25 on September 8, is not counted. Adrian...