The 20 year old is three years removed from being drafted in the first round, 18th overall. He has 37 regular-season games under his belt and 13 more in the postseason.

So far in this Stanley Cup Final, the Chicago Blackhawks have already reaped the benefits of not-quite-teenager Teuvo Teravainen, who scored the game-tying goal in the third period against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday in Game 1 and added an assist on the game-winner.

TAMPA — The use of rookies is always fraught, especially young ones. Some are able to inflict their game on the other team. Some wilt in the spotlight. Many cannot be trusted on defense.


Jonathan Drouin, also 20, played in nearly every game for the Lightning in the regular season, getting 70 games in his first try at the NHL. But he has spent most of the playoffs in the press box, not having played since May 7 against Montreal. That could change for Game 2, for which Drouin will take warm-ups.

These two teams aren’t the only ones making such decisions. In the last half dozen seasons, the Bruins have integrated such young players into their lineup, including Dougie Hamilton, Tyler Seguin, and David Pastrnak.

And though they didn’t face the question of whether and how much to use the 18-year-old Pastrnak in the playoffs this season, they did with the then-19-year-old Hamilton in 2012-13 and the then-19-year-old Seguin in 2010-11, both years in which the Bruins reached the Stanley Cup Final.

Hamilton played in 42-of-48 regular season games that year. Seguin played in 74 of 82.

But when the playoffs came around, both found homes in the press box for long stretches. Hamilton got seven games of action, as the Bruins reached the Final and lost to the Blackhawks, as the play tightened up and it became more difficult to rely on a very young defenseman.


Seguin — perhaps the closest comparison to Drouin — got 13, sitting out the first two rounds before playing in all seven games in the Eastern Conference finals against the Lightning and six-of-seven in the Cup Final against the Canucks.

Dougie Hamilton (27) played in 42-of-48 regular season games in 2012-13. Jim Davis/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

At the time, neither player was fully trusted by coach Claude Julien and the Bruins. Both had to watch and learn, as Drouin has been doing throughout this playoff run.

So how do you decide when to believe in a young player?

“Every case is probably different,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said on Thursday, addressing Teravainen. “I think we trust players more when they play the right way. It’s more what they do defensively, how they handle pucks in safe plays, their positional awareness, their strength in the puck areas.

“I think with time you can trust him in different situations. We had him out there late in the game [on Wednesday]. But that’s from the history part. That’s the evolution of trusting him and putting him in situations before. But you earn that.”

That progression led to Teravainen being on the ice in the third period, in a position to score that game-tying goal and assist on the game-winning goal. It’s what the Lightning hope they can count on from Drouin, should he be in on Saturday night in Game 2.

Back in 2010-11, Seguin started out strong — perhaps buoyed by the adrenaline of his first postseason game — with a goal and an assist in his first playoff game against Tampa Bay and two goals and two assists in his second. He dropped off from there, scoring just one assist in his final 11 playoff games that season, often not topping 10 minutes of ice time.


Drouin can only hope that he gets in the lineup — and doesn’t come out again.

“It is frustrating,” he admitted on Saturday morning after the team’s skate. “But there’s two teams left here in the Cup Final. I’m [20]. Definitely learning a lot of stuff even though I’m watching from up there.

“I didn’t come in thinking it was going to be easy. Getting cut last year as an 18 year old, you definitely come here with a chip on your shoulder and, again, I think it’s such a good team. You want to be in every night, but it’s definitely a harder league to just come in and start playing. There’s stuff you’ve got to learn before you come in and make an impact right away.”

Follow Amalie Benjamin on twitter @amaliebenjamin.