The 15 most impressive young NHL players so far this season

It is probably not too early to already give the Rookie of the Year Award to Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson. He leads all rookies in pretty much every major offensive category, is a one-man highlight reel every single time he is on the ice and looks like he is going to be a dominant core piece for the Canucks organization going forward. The Canucks may not win many games this season or make the playoffs, but Pettersson and Brock Boeser are going to be great building blocks for the team. 

Whenever Alex Ovechkin stops dominating the NHL's goal-scoring leaderboard, Patrik Laine is probably going to be the player who takes over. His shot and goal-scoring ability are already among the best in the NHL, and he seems to be on track for what could be his first 50-goal season. At the very least, we should be able to pinch him in as a 40-goal scorer every year for the next decade. He is that good. 

Anytime you have a player who averages more than a goal-per-game over any 16-game stretch, it is something that is going to get your attention. When that player is Auston Matthews, focal point of the Toronto Maple Leafs' rebuild and the face of the franchise that is now a Stanley Cup contender, it is going to be an even bigger deal. His early goal-scoring pace this season may be unsustainable, but he has shown over the first couple of years of his career that he is an elite talent offensively. 

Brayden Point is a game-changer for the Tampa Bay Lightning. He gives them (for this year, anyway) a cheap top-line forward to complement the big-money superstars like Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov, and he is already just as good as they are. He is going to cost a ton of money after this season when he is eligible for restricted free agency, but the Lightning will happily pay it and should be able to fit him under the salary cap. His big highlight of the season so far was recording one of the fastest hat tricks in NHL history when he scored three goals in just 91 seconds (all on the power play) in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins that his team rallied to win. 

The hype for Mitch Marner in Toronto is a little bit out of control at times, but he is still an excellent player and has already established himself as one of the best playmakers and passers in the league. He may never be a great goal scorer (think 25-30 goals at his best), but he can still be an 80-point player overall given his ability to set up his linemates. 

Miro Heiskanen should be a top contender for the Calder Trophy for pretty much taking over as a top-pairing defender with the Dallas Stars. He is playing huge minutes in a defensive role and providing really good offense. He is still only 19 years old and had never spent a minute in the NHL before this season. HIs rookie season could not possibly be going any better for the team.

It is asking an awful lot to expect an 18-year-old defenseman to step right into an NHL lineup and play more than 20 minutes per night. The expectations are even higher when it was a much-hyped No. 1 overall draft pick who is supposed to be a franchise-changing player. But Rasmus Dahlin has exceeded all of the early expectations that could have been thrown his way and is a pretty steady highlight reel on the Buffalo blue line. 

Kyle Connor is sometimes the forgotten player in Winnipeg. On a team that has Patrik Laine, Blake Wheeler and Mark Scheifele he is not going to get as many headlines. But that does not mean he is not a great young player. He is playing his way toward a big new contract this offseason,

After finishing as a runner-up in the Rookie of the Year voting a season ago, Brock Boeser has come back just as good in Year 2 — when he has been healthy. Injuries have been the only thing that has held him back in the early stages of his career. When he is on the ice, though, he is as good as any other young goal scorer in the league and creates a great young tandem in Vancouver with stud rookie Elias Pettersson. 

His performance has not been as dominant as that of his rookie season, but Mathew Barzal still has been pretty outstanding for the New York Islanders. He is one of the league's best young playmakers, and it is only a matter of time until the puck starts finding the back of the net a little more often for him. He is the future of the New York Islanders franchise. 

The Chicago Blackhawks' run as a Stanley Cup contender has come to a close, and if they are going to head back in the right direction anytime soon it is going to be because of young players like Alex DeBrincat. He has been one of the few bright spots in Chicago the past two years and looks like an emerging star. He was a steal for the Blackhawks in the second round of the 2015 draft class. If he was a little bit taller, he probably would have been a top-five pick in his class. He will be a core player for this team.

Sebastian Aho opened the season with at least one assist in each of his first 12 games. He is an outstanding playmaker and one of the best young players on an exciting young team. He has shown steady improvement each year he has been in the league and is nearly a point-per-game player for more than a quarter of the 2018-19 season. 

When the Columbus Blue Jackets selected Pierre-Luc Dubois with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2016 draft, it raised a few eyebrows because most analysts were sure that pick was going to be used on Finnish prospect Jesse Puljujarvi. The Blue Jackets, as it turns out, may have been right in their analysis. While Puljujarvi (who ended up going No. 4 overall to the Edmonton Oilers) has yet to establish himself as a regular NHL winger, Dubois has been outstanding in his first two years for Columbus. After a 20-goal, 48-point performance in his rookie season as a 19-year-old, the now 20-year-old center is on track to exceed all of those numbers in Year 2.  

With Erik Karlsson now playing in San Jose, the Senators defense has been turned over to the future. Based on what we have seen so far, it has a chance to be a bright future with Thomas Chabot. The No. 18 overall pick in 2015, Chabot has been a point-per-game player and one of the team's best. It has been a true breakout season for the Senators' young star. 

In his third season, 22-year-old Timo Meier is already on track to shatter his previous career highs. He has been a point-per-game player through the first 30 games of the Sharks' season and has been one of their best players from the start. He was the No. 9 overall pick by San Jose in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and is on his way to becoming a regular top-line contributor for the team.