The Forman Files - How the NHL is Quickly Becoming a Young Man's Game

Its no secret: the NHL today is a young mans game and dominated by the youth or "next generation" of talent in the game of hockey. Something that has been very evident to me during this offseason was that veteran role guys (ie the 3rd/4th liners or bottom pair D) just weren't getting offers that they may have been in the past. It's a trend that continues to happen more and more as each new season begins, especially in this salary cap era where teams are in dire need of budgeting their cap well. The best teams in the NHL have 4-lines and 3 d-pairs that can play at both ends of the ice, so there isn't as much room for the role guys or fighters. The exception to that are guys like Brandon Prust and Shawn Thornton, fighters who can also play good 2-way hockey. This has left a big group of established NHL players without contracts going into training camps, many of them having to take PTOs (Professional Try Outs) to have a chance to earn one.

Notable Players on PTOs:

David Booth (FLA) - released

Brad Boyes (TOR) - signed to a 1-year deal

Devin Setoguchi (TOR - released

Curtis Glencross (TOR/COL) - released by TOR, released by COL

Andrej Meszaros (COL) - released

Jack Skille (COL) - signed to a 1-year deal

Dan Paille (CHI) - released

Lubomir Visnovsky (CHI)- released

Michal Rozsival (CHI) - signed to a 1-year deal

Tomas Kopecky (CHI) - released
Jan Hejda (CHI) - released
Ryan Wilson (CGY) - released

Peter Budaj (LAK) - sent to AHL

Jonas Gustavsson (BOS) - signed to a 1-year deal

Tomas Fleischmann (MTL) - signed to a 1-year deal

Tyler Kennedy (NJD) - released

Lee Stempniak (NJD) - signed to a 1-year deal

Martin Havlat (FLA) - released

Steve Bernier (NYI) - signed to a 1-year deal

Sergei Gonchar (PIT) - released

Scott Gomez (STL) - signed to a 1-year deal
Scottie Upshall (STL) - signed to a 1-year deal

Ray Emery (TBL) - released

Derek Roy (WSH) - released
James Sheppard (CBJ) - released

6 of these guys are Stanley Cup Winners: 

Dan Paille - Boston 2011

Michal Rozsival - Chicago 2013, 2015

Tomas Kopecky - Chicago 2010

Tyler Kennedy - Pittsburgh 2009

Sergei Gonchar - Pittsburgh 2009

Scott Gomez - New Jersey 2000, 2003

These are players that were impact guys on their respective teams only a few years ago, and yet most of them weren't able to get even a 1-year deal. The way the Salary Cap is structured now contracts are viewed more as a long-term investment and less about short-term needs. I'm not saying that guys don't get 1-2 year deals but the important contracts that GMs have to deal with are young superstar players or young on the rise players. Its all part of this transition to youth that has left a lot of veteran players without contracts, something that would have never happened in the old NHL (pre-2004/2005 lockout). In fact I would say it was the opposite in terms of the value of veterans vs. youth, the NHL was dominated by the established superstars that had the experience to back it up. The idea of 18-22 year-old players making an NHL team, even those just drafted in the 1st round, was pretty rare with exception of elite players. Most spots would be filled by veteran guys and rookies would have to compete to earn their spot, even top draft picks. If you look at the NHL now it's almost expected that these young guys step in as quickly as possible, and often its more than one or two guys in that same age category that make the team. For comparison sake I'm going to show you the roster of the 1995-1996 Buffalo Sabres and the 2014-2015 Buffalo Sabres and break down the age differences (these are players who had played at least 20 games).

1995-1996 Sabres:

#	Player Name	Age	Pos.	GP	G	A	Pts
44	Alexei Zhitnik	22	D	80	6	30	36
10	Brad May	23	L	79	15	29	44
3	Garry Galley	32	D	78	10	44	54
26	Derek Plante	24	C	76	23	33	56
17	Brent Hughes	29	L	76	5	10	15
16	Pat LaFontaine	30	C	76	40	51	91
12	Randy Burridge	29	L	74	25	33	58
36	Matthew Barnaby	22	R	73	15	16	31
32	Rob Ray	27	R	71	3	6	9
27	Mike Peca	21	C	68	11	20	31
43	Jason Dawe	22	R	67	25	25	50
	Yuri Khmylev	31	L	66	8	20	28
21	Mark Astley	26	D	60	2	18	20
39	Dominik Hasek	30	G	59	0	1	1
19	Brian Holzinger	22	C	58	10	10	20
34	Mike Wilson	21	D	58	4	8	12
	Dave Hannan	33	L	57	6	10	16
	Charlie Huddy	36	D	52	5	5	10
	Craig Muni	33	D	47	0	4	4
6	Doug Houda	29	D	38	1	3	4
4	Bob Boughner	24	D	31	0	1	1
25	Rob Conn	26	R	28	2	5	7
33	Scott Pearson	25	L	27	4	0	4
8	Darryl Shannon	27	D	26	2	6	8
28	Donald Audette	25	R	23	12	13	25

30	Andrei Trefilov	26	G	22	0	0	0
24	Dane Jackson	25	R	22	5	4	9
18	Michal Grosek	20	R	22	6	4	10

2014/15 Sabres:

#	Player Name	Age	Pos.	GP	G	A	Pts
44	Nicolas Deslauriers	23	L	82	5	10	15
63	Tyler Ennis	24	C	78	20	26	46
19	Cody Hodgson	24	C	78	6	7	13
55	Rasmus Ristolainen	19	D	78	8	12	20
26	Matt Moulson	30	L	77	13	28	41
12	Brian Gionta	35	R	69	13	22	35
6	Mike Weber	26	D	64	1	6	7
80	Chris Stewart	26	R	61	11	14	25
28	Zemgus Girgensons	20	C	61	15	15	30
41	Andrej Meszaros	28	D	60	7	7	14
51	Nikita Zadorov	19	D	60	3	12	15
61	Andre Benoit	30	D	59	1	8	9
82	Marcus Foligno	23	L	57	8	12	20
65	Brian Flynn	26	C	54	5	12	17
17	Torrey Mitchell	29	C	51	6	7	13
21	Drew Stafford	28	R	50	9	15	24
57	Tyler Myers	24	D	47	4	9	13
24	Tyson Strachan	29	D	46	0	5	5
4	Josh Gorges	30	D	46	0	6	6
36	Patrick Kaleta	28	R	42	0	3	3
22	Johan Larsson	22	R	39	6	10	16
37	Matt Ellis	33	L	39	1	1	2
1	Jhonas Enroth	26	G	37	0	0	0
8	Cody McCormick	31	C	33	1	3	4
84	Philip Varone	23	C	28	3	2	5
34	Michal Neuvirth	26	G	27	0	0	0
25	Mikhail Grigorenko	20	C	25	3	3	6
20	Zac Dalpe	24	C	21	1	2	3
47	Zach Bogosian	24	D	21	0	7	7

1995/1996 Players 20 or under: 1

1995/1996 Players 21-24: 8

1995/1996 Players 30 or over: 7

1995/1996 Average Age: 26.43

2014/2015 Players 20 or under: 4

2014/2015 Players 21-24: 9

2014/2015 Players 30 or over: 5

2014/2015 Average Age: 25.86

The statistics were similar in the 21-24 category, and it shows that there will always be young players getting their chances right away. I'm not saying that in the old-NHL no young players ever made their team right away, but it was just a lot more difficult than it is now (where it's much more of an expectation). The real difference of these two rosters is the players 20 or under: the 1995/1996 Sabres had only Michal Grosek (20) in that category and he only played 20 games that season. Looking at the 2014/2015 Sabres they had 4 players (Rasmus Ristolainen - 19, Zemgus Girgensons - 20, Nikita Zadorov - 19 and Mikhail Grigorenko - 20) in that category who played a combined 224 games. That's a lot of trust in some very young players, and just part of the changing culture of the NHL today. Some of these guys have not been shy about saying how difficult it is to be in this position, especially some of the more established guys. David Booth was on a PTO with the Florida Panthers, the team that drafted him 53rd overall in 2004 and the team that he played in his first 6-NHL seasons. It seemed like a good fit for Booth, a guy looking to revitalize his career in a familiar setting. However things didn't work out for Booth who was just released from his PTO, and he didn't hold back in his comments afterwards:

I found myself reading this and really trying to break it down and look at it from Booth's point of view, and he makes 2 points that I completely agree with:

1. Hockey is a business and you're just a number, they have to make decisions they feel are best for the team.

2. Back in the day older guys were pushing younger guys back, now things are the opposite older guys are getting phased out of the game.

The first point that Booth makes is quite obvious, from the GM/Owner's standpoint hockey is a business and everything is done with the best intentions towards the team. As I said above, in this salary cap era teams are cautious with spending and that translates to a lot of guys not getting contracts. The second point completely backs up my thoughts on writing this article; how the NHL is becoming a young mans game and phasing out the veteran/role guys. Booth says how it used to the old guys pushing young players back to wait their turn, now its those older guys getting pushed out of roster spots by younger players. This doesn't mean that no veteran players are able to stay in the NHL today, heck Jaromir Jagr is 43 and still piling on the points, but the NHL is trending younger and younger by the year and becoming a young man's game.

Joel Forman - The Forman Faceoff