I 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.
