Links - Handful of teenagers remain in the NHL despite dra - North River Minor Hockey Association

Handful of teenagers remain in the NHL despite drawbacks LOGINREGISTERHELPYOU ARE NOT LOGGED IN NHLNBAMLBCFLNFLCurlingTennisGolfSoccerNASCARFormula OneIndyCar NASCAR Canadian Tire SeriesNationwideCamping WorldAuto RacingWorld JuniorsSpengler CupMenS WHCWomenS WHCHockey CanadaAHLBoxingCanada GamesCHLCISECHLFigure SkatingLacrosseMMANCAASkiingSummer SportsWinter SportsMoreOlympicsFantasyDaily LineShowsTSN TalentCommunityMainHockey Canada eotText SizeDon Maloney has plenty of onthejob experience when it comes to evaluating whether a teenager belongs in the NHLOver the past two seasons Peter Mueller Kyle Turris Viktor Tikhonov and Mikkel Boedker have all spent significant time with his Phoenix Coyotes prior to celebrating their 20th birthdayTheres been a slight change in philosophy this year for the Coyotes who are off to a solid 520 start Mueller now 21 is currently the teams youngest player because Turris Tikhonov and Boedker are all skating in the American Hockey League with San AntonioMaloney acknowledges now that he probably shouldnt have relied on so many teenagers in the pastIf a 19yearold player is on your NHL roster and not producing 30 goals or playing 25 minutes you really should have him somewhere else Maloney told The Canadian Press on Tuesday And yet thats the fantasy world The real world we live in now is were all scrambling to put the best players we can find into our roster to help us winIts an interesting point to consider with six players selected in the June draft still playing for NHL teams John Tavares in Long Island Viktor Hedman in Tampa Evander Kane in Atlanta Dmitry Kulikov in Florida and Matt Duchene and Ryan OReilly in ColoradoEach of those guys is likely to play his 10th game of the season in the coming week or two automatically burning the first year of his entrylevel contract While a player could still be sent back to junior after that point its less likely to happenNHL teams grapple with the decision about whether to hold onto their highly skilled teenagers each year In some cases keeping an 18yearold is a smashing success (Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane both made big impacts at that age) more often than not young players fail to make a meaningful contributionJust ask MaloneyFor every Patrick Kane theres probably a dozen other players that are high picks that everybody expects to be impactful players at 18 or 19 or 20 but its rarely the case he saidWhile each of the six recent draft picks have all made early contributions to their teams theres no guarantee it will continue throughout the season Each team is taking some degree of risk by holding onto its playerThe situation in Colorado is particularly unique because the Avs kept two 18yearolds and have been one of the NHLs best teams so farDuchene and OReilly will both remain in Denver for the foreseeable future The organization plans to g...