Youthful Achievements: Barry Pederson and Sidney Crosby

by Hawerchuk on Apr 7, 2010 9:00 AM EDT Comment 4 comments

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.

0 recs | Comment 4 comments |

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

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.

by Doogie2K on Apr 8, 2010 8:57 AM EDT reply actions