{"id":227512,"date":"2025-10-20T13:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227512\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T13:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T13:10:12","slug":"6-young-nhl-players-who-are-making-a-big-impact-early-in-the-2025-26-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/227512\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Young NHL Players Who Are Making a Big Impact Early In the 2025\u201326 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NHL is a young man\u2019s league. Veterans may still have their place, but the kids are taking charge. Especially this season.<\/p>\n

Which six young players, drafted between 2022 and 2025, are making the most noise? Let\u2019s take a look.<\/p>\n

Note: Stats accurate through Oct. 19<\/p>\n

With seven points in as many games, 20-year-old Connor Bedard has hit the ground running. Should his point-per-game pace on a rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks team stick, he\u2019d enter the high-end star conversation, one step away from a superstar.<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/a>Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, Chicago Blackhawks (Steve Roberts-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that Bedard\u2019s tools are incredible<\/a>. His shot is dynamic, he is dominant off the rush, and can break down defenses inside the offensive zone. However, he previously struggled to make a substantial impact at 5-on-5. So far, that\u2019s continued this season.<\/p>\n

During 5-on-5 action, Bedard has a 41.73% expected goal share<\/a>, hidden by unsustainable goaltending (.933 save percentage) and finishing (10.63% on-ice shooting percentage; in other words, the Blackhawks\u2019 shot conversion rate when he\u2019s on the ice). He\u2019s not taking other teams to town yet at five-a-side hockey, instead doing a lot of his damage in other situations.<\/p>\n

This is simply to provide context, not to discredit what he has done. Bedard will, inevitably, reach superstar status, changing the game at 5-on-5. No matter how you break down his production, it\u2019s still there. Once he gets more talent around him, Chicago will be dangerous.<\/p>\n

A few prospect-watchers had left-shot defenseman Zeev Buium as a top-five player in the 2024 NHL Draft. He slipped to 12th, likely due to his smaller size, with the defense-needy Philadelphia Flyers even trading out of the pick<\/a>. With five points in six games, the 19-year-old is on track to silence the haters.<\/p>\n

But that should come with an asterisk, admittedly. All five of Buium\u2019s points have come on the Minnesota Wild\u2019s high-flying power play, undoubtedly benefiting from superstar forward Kirill Kaprizov. The defender\u2019s minus-7 rating definitely doesn\u2019t look good on paper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL is a young man\u2019s league. Veterans may still have their place, but the kids are taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-227512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}