Youthful Achievements: Barry Pederson and Sidney Crosby
by Hawerchuk on Apr 7, 2010 9:00 AM EDT
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PrintI highly recommend taking a quick spin through hockey-reference.com's game and season database search tools. Here are the top playoff scorers from age 18 to 21, minimum 20 games played, ranked by points-per-game:
| Player | Years | Tm | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | PPG |
| Barry Pederson | 1982-83 | BOS | C | 28 | 21 | 29 | 50 | 1.79 |
| Sidney Crosby " height="17">Sidney Crosby | 2007-09 | PIT | C | 49 | 24 | 39 | 63 | 1.29 |
| Stan Mikita | 1960-62 | CBH | C | 27 | 12 | 21 | 33 | 1.22 |
| Ken Linseman | 1979-80 | PHI | C | 25 | 6 | 24 | 30 | 1.20 |
| Steve Yzerman | 1984-87 | DET | C | 23 | 10 | 17 | 27 | 1.17 |
| Denis Savard | 1981-83 | CBH | C | 31 | 19 | 16 | 35 | 1.13 |
| Eric Staal " height="17">Eric Staal | 2006-06 | CAR | C | 25 | 9 | 19 | 28 | 1.12 |
| Pierre Turgeon | 1988-91 | BUF | C | 23 | 12 | 13 | 25 | 1.09 |
| Dino Ciccarelli | 1981-82 | MNS | RW | 23 | 17 | 8 | 25 | 1.09 |
| Bobby Orr | 1968-70 | BOS | D | 28 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 1.07 |
| Evgeni Malkin " height="17">Evgeni Malkin | 2007-08 | PIT | C | 25 | 10 | 16 | 26 | 1.04 |
| Michel Goulet | 1981-82 | QUE | LW | 20 | 11 | 9 | 20 | 1.00 |
| Nicklas Backstrom " height="17">Nicklas Backstrom | 2008-09 | WSH | C | 21 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 1.00 |
| Trevor Linden | 1989-92 | VAN | RW | 26 | 7 | 19 | 26 | 1.00 |
| Alex Kovalev " height="17">Alex Kovalev | 1994-95 | NYR | RW | 33 | 13 | 19 | 32 | 0.97 |
While Sidney Crosby's greatness is readily apparent, it's amazing how far Barry Pederson is ahead of the pack. The Pederson-Rick Middleton combination was amazing in the 1982-83 playoffs, but they came up against the eventual cup champion Islanders and went down four games to two. Pederson looked like a sure-fire hall of famer, but underwent numerous surgeries after a tumor was found in his shoulder and was never the same player. He would have just two playoff points after age 21.
At the other end, we have the top playoff scorers, age 38 and older:
| Player | Years | Tm | Pos | GP | G | A | PTS | PPG |
| Jean Beliveau | 1971-71 | MTL | C | 20 | 6 | 16 | 22 | 1.10 |
| John Bucyk | 1974-77 | BOS | LW | 36 | 11 | 17 | 28 | 0.78 |
| Nicklas Lidstrom " height="17">Nicklas Lidstrom | 2009-09 | DET | D | 21 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 0.76 |
| Raymond Bourque | 1999-01 | BOS | D | 46 | 6 | 23 | 29 | 0.63 |
| Bill Guerin " height="17">Bill Guerin | 2009-09 | PIT | RW | 24 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 0.63 |
| Sergei Fedorov " height="17">Sergei Fedorov | 2008-09 | WSH | C | 21 | 2 | 11 | 13 | 0.62 |
| Dave Andreychuk | 2003-04 | TBL | LW | 34 | 4 | 16 | 20 | 0.59 |
| Ron Francis | 2002-04 | CAR | C | 35 | 6 | 14 | 20 | 0.57 |
| Brendan Shanahan " height="17">Brendan Shanahan | 2007-09 | NYR | LW | 27 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 0.56 |
| Adam Oates | 2001-03 | WSH | C | 32 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 0.47 |
| Igor Larionov | 1999-04 | DET | C | 45 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 0.47 |
| Larry Robinson | 1990-92 | LAK | D | 24 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 0.42 |
| Scott Stevens | 2003-03 | NJD | D | 24 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 0.38 |
| Steve Thomas | 2002-04 | CHI | LW | 32 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 0.34 |
| Guy Carbonneau | 1999-00 | DAL | C | 40 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 0.30 |
While young playoff phenoms have shown up every few years, the idea of a player remaining productive in the playoffs until age 40 is very much a modern one.
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Great work there, Gabe.
Lots of guys from the Roaring ‘80s on the first list, when hockey was wide open, but that era doesn’t look to have been so kind to older players, based on the second list.
Interesting . . .
by David Staples @ The Cult of Hockey on Apr 7, 2010 11:39 AM EDT reply actions
Gretzky and Stevens
I understand that Gretzky missed out on the list because he didn’t play in 20 playoff games by the time he was 21, so I’m not critiquing the list at all.
But when you consider Gretzky alongside this list, it shows you how dominant he was (not that we need to be reminded of his dominance). If we adjust the range to include players with at least 20 points, instead of games, Gretzky shoots to first with 2.12 points per game. That’s with 36 points in 17 games so even giving him 0 points for the 3 remaining games he needs to qualify would still put him first overall in points per game at 1.8.
Also, the full list at hockey-reference also makes me wonder what sort of numbers Scott Stevens would have put up had he not gone to Jersey. He had 22 points in 26 playoff games during that age range (2nd best rate for a DMan) – I always forget that he was that productive on offense when he was younger.
by ExCanuck on Apr 7, 2010 2:38 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Pederson looked like a sure-fire hall of famer, but underwent numerous surgeries after a tumor was found in his shoulder and was never the same player.
Geepers, is that what happened? I had no idea.
SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there). Link now 100% less broken.
It’s ok, we traded him for Neely.
Join me on the Hockey Blog Adventure! (or Twitter.) GO BRUINS! (and Wild!)
by Cornelius Hardenbergh on Apr 8, 2010 9:23 AM EDT up reply actions
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