Youth movement means fewer rooms and more goals
By Mike Chambers, The Denver Post
NHL scoring has significantly increased from this time last season and teams are paying less in hotel expenses. The Avalanche is a prime example of those dissimilar trends.
So what do scoring and hotels have to do with each other? Young players are behind the scoring spike and all players in their entry-level contracts must have a roommate on the road. For the Avs — the NHL’S third-youngest team — there has been a huge swing in scoring and hotel expenses because of their five rookies and third-year winger Mikko Rantanen.
Heading into Saturday’s game at the Florida Panthers, the Avs were averaging 3.03 goals per game, which was 10th highest in the 31-team league. Among 30 teams last season, Colorado was last in scoring, at 2.01.
On this four-game trip that takes Colorado to Pittsburgh on Monday and concludes Tuesday at Washington, Rantanen, 21, is rooming with rookie defenseman Anton Lindholm, 23; rookie forward J.T. Compher, 22, is paired with first-year defenseman Sam Girard, 19; and rookie forwards Alex Kerfoot, 23, and Tyson Jost, 19, share a room. The Avs usually stay at a Ritz-carlton or another luxury hotel of that caliber.
Each of Colorado’s 16 other players on the team have their own room, per the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Avs, as promised by general manager Joe Sakic late last season, have far fewer 30-something journeymen specialists and fourth-line grinders collecting millions in salary, replaced by fast, skilled youngsters who are making no more than a $950,000 salary — the maximum for players in their entrylevel deals.
“The Kid Line” — center Kerfoot, with wingers Jost and Compher — has essentially replaced last season’s 30-somethings Jarome Iginla, John Mitchell and Rene Bourque, ridding Colorado of substantial age and salary. Currently on the back end, Girard and Lindholm have indirectly stepped in for Francois Beauchemin, 37, and Fedor Tyutin, 34.
In Thursday’s game at Tampa Bay, there were three 19-year-olds in the lineups — two for the Avs (Girard and Jost) and one for the Lightning (defenseman Mikhail Sergachev). Around the league, it’s becoming common to have multiple teenagers in every game.
“We’re not the exception,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of the youth movement. “It’s becoming more the norm. It says a lot for the development of those young players and where they’ve been playing and the talents that they have. That’s the way it is now. You’ve got some core players that take up a lot of your (salary) cap, and you need young entry-level guys to come up and help you. Certainly, we’ve liked our young guys and what they’re bringing to the table. They’re giving us a boost in almost every aspect of our game. (Around the league), guys are becoming ready at a very young age, and I think you’ll see that trend continue.”
According to The Associated Press, NHL scoring is up 12 percent from the same time a year ago, including 14 percent on the power play and 38 percent in shorthanded goals.
Compher has a team-leading two shorthanded goals for the Avs. In addition to youth and skill, and the reduction of middle-aged players, the NHL’S crackdown on slashing to the hands has led to increased scoring.
“Just the mold of all teams is kind of changing: They’re going for smaller, skilled guys rather than guys who are two-way forwards and stuff like that,” Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty, 28, told The AP. “These young kids have unbelievable skill, too. It’s kind of crazy how much skill.”
That’s a remarkable statement coming from Doughty, the No. 2 pick in the 2008 draft who broke into the league as a generational defenseman at age 18 in 2008-09. Nowadays, it seems that every team expects to have a teenage Doughty in their lineup.