The NHL's top 25 players under the age of 25

McDavid is simply the best player in the NHL. Period. Does not matter the age range. He already has three 100-point seasons in his first four years in the league, keeps improving every year and is as dominant offensively as any player who has entered the league since the days of Gretzky and Lemieux. That is what makes the lack of talent around him in Edmonton so disappointing. The Oilers are wasting this gift. 

It took a few years for MacKinnon to fully arrive as a superstar, but now that he is here he is the cornerstone of a potential championship core in Colorado. He has finished in the top six of the MVP voting in each of the past two seasons. He not only has an MVP in his future, but he also probably has a scoring title and maybe even a Stanley Cup if things go as planned for the Avalanche. His contract is also one of the biggest bargains in the NHL from a salary cap perspective. That gives the Avalanche a huge advantage in building around him. 

If the Panthers do it correctly, Barkov is the type of player to build a championship team around. He is everything you want a two-way center to be, as he combines great defensive play with elite offense. His contract is comparable to MacKinnon's in Colorado in that he has one of the most team-friendly salary cap numbers in the league. If he were up for a new contract now, he would easily be a $10 million per year player. The Panthers get him for $5.9 million for another three years.  

The biggest issue he has had the past two seasons is staying on the ice for a full season. If he does that, he might be a 50-goal scorer in short order. He has been everything the Maple Leafs hoped he would be when they selected him No. 1 overall. He is the face of the franchise and if he ever helps bring a championship to Toronto, he will become a legend in the city. 

Do not rule out Pastrnak as a potential goal-scoring champion in the league. He has become one of the league's best finishers and scored 38 goals in only 66 games this past season. He has elite skill and plays next to two of the best players in the league in Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. That is a crushing combination for opposing defenses. 

The Lightning just keep finding superstars. The 23-year-old Point is an elite offensive player and is coming off a 41-goal, 92-point season. Not good enough for you? Add in the fact he also has back-to-back top-10 finishes in Selke Trophy voting (best defensive forward). Along with Nikita Kucherov, Steven Stamkos, Victor Hedman, and Andrei Vasilevskiy he is a huge part of the Lightning's core. 

Laine is only three years into his career and is already one of the best goalscorers in the NHL. He is so good that a 30-goal performance in 2018-19 was considered a "down" year for him. Even then he still showed how dominant he can be with 18 goals in 12 games during the month of November. He was hurt by an unsustainably low shooting percentage the rest of the season. He will always be a 40-goal threat. 

Like McDavid in Edmonton, Eichel's best years in Buffalo are getting wasted by a team that has been unable to successfully build around him. Because the Sabres have not made it to the playoffs during his career, it is easy to overlook just how good Eichel has been. Don't. He is a star player in this league and is already one of the most productive and dominant offensive players in the league. 

Just two years into the league, and Mcavoy is already the No. 1 defender on a team that was a Game 7 away from winning the Stanley Cup. There are sample size issues here given that he has played only 158 games in the NHL (regular season and playoffs), but he has been great in those games, not only in his ability to produce points but also to dictate the pace of the game when he is on the ice. 

Rantanen and MacKinnon have formed one of the NHL's most dynamic duos offensively, and both are just now entering their prime years in the league. They are going to be a force to be reckoned with for years and are the biggest reasons the Avalanche have a championship window that is going to be wide open for a long time. 

He is not quite on the same tier as McDavid and Matthews as overall players, but he is an exceptional talent and playmaker. The Maple Leafs were smart to do whatever it took to make sure he re-signed with them. The salary cap headaches are worth it if you are paying All-Star level players. Marner is one of those players for the Maple Leafs. 

From the moment Aho made his NHL debut for the Hurricanes as a 19-year-old, he looked like a potential star. All he has done since then is get better every season and become the franchise player and one of the top young offensive stars in the league. The Hurricanes are building a championship contender, and Aho is one of the most important pieces in that puzzle. 

Draisaitl became just the eighth player over the past 20 years to score at least 50 goals and 100 points in the same season. Along with McDavid, he is one of the few bright spots on an otherwise dismal Oilers team. He also finished the 2018-19 season in the top four in goals and total points. So why is he not higher on the list? For one, he probably will not duplicate those numbers again, and while he is still good away from McDavid, his numbers drop off a bit when he has to drive his own line. Still, there is a lot to be said for being able to produce at that level when he is paired with McDavid. 

He is the new face of the Islanders franchise and a dynamic playmaker. His offense regressed a bit in Year 2, but he is still the player this whole thing is going to be built around for the foreseeable future. He is more of a playmaker than a pure goalscorer, but he has 80-90 point potential in the NHL. 

The Stars were right to make him off limits in trade talks when they were trying to acquire Erik Karlsson a year ago. After just one season in the league, Heiskanen already has the look of a franchise, No. 1 defender and maybe even a future Norris Trophy winner. Stars goalie Ben Bishop called him a future Hall of Famer and already one of the best defenders he has ever played with. That is ridiculously high praise. It may not be unwarranted either. 

Have said this before about Tkachuk but it is probably the best comparison for him: He is the Western Conference version of Brad Marchand. What does that involve? A highly skilled, top-line scorer who will infuriate opponents every night with his style of play. Opponents and opposing fans will hate him for years. His teammates and Flames fans will love him. 

When the Blue Jackets took him No. 3 overall instead of Jesse Puljujarvi, it raised some eyebrows and even resulted in some criticism. It is clear now they made the right choice. Dubois has been even better than the Blue Jackets could have expected over his first two years in the league, and given his already strong two-way play and production to date he seems to be on the verge of a breakout season this year. 

The one thing the Sabres' rebuild has been lacking is a top-pairing blue liner. They found one in Dahlin when they won the draft lottery and the right to pick No. 1 overall one year ago. Dahlin wasted no time in showing why he was one of the most anticipated defense prospects in years and looks like he is destined for superstardom in the league. With him and Eichel, the Sabres have two great franchise cornerstones. They just need to build around them. 

Connor is kind of the forgotten young player in Winnipeg, seemingly always stuck in the shadows behind Mark Scheifele and Laine. But there is a lot to be said for a 23-year-old winger who has scored at least 30 goals in two of his first three years in the league. He still has some work to do away from the puck, and he is not someone who drives possession. But he can put the puck in the net as well as any young player in the league right now. 

Werenski is one of the reasons the Blue Jackets should be optimistic about their long-term outlook, even after their offseason free agency exodus. Werenski and Seth Jones form one of the NHL's best defense duos and will be the foundation of the organization for years. He is a great talent offensively and has scored at least 11 goals in each of his first three years in the league. He is one of just 17 defenders in the history of the league to accomplish that. 

The Canucks needed a young superstar to emerge, and Pettersson did just that during the 2018-19 season. He won the league's Rookie of the Year Award and gave Canucks fans a glimmer of hope that maybe their ongoing rebuild can one day produce some positive results. The only red flag for Pettersson is that he shot nearly 20 percent in his rookie year and saw his goal scoring tail off a bit in the second half. Still, his talent is real and he is an electrifying player. 

The Canucks do not have a lot going for them, but they do have two of the best young players in the league in Pettersson and Boeser. Boeser's only issue is he has missed significant time over his first two full years in the league. When he is on the ice he has proved to be a top-line goalscorer. He has a couple of 40-goal seasons in his future. 

Almost every team that allowed him to fall to the 39th pick in the 2016 NHL draft should be kicking itself today. He may be one of the smallest players in the league, but he is already one of the top young goalscorers with 69 goals in his first 164 games. That includes a 41-goal effort this past season. Let this be a lesson to general managers everywhere: Take the small player who has shown an ability to score a lot of goals. 

Not every No. 1 overall pick is going to immediately step into the league and dominate from Day 1. Sometimes it takes a few years. (Just look at MacKinnon in Colorado, or Taylor Hall, or Steven Stamkos.) Even though he has not yet put up huge numbers, Hischier is still off to a great start in his career and looks like he can be a star in the league. Excitement is high for the Devils this season after a huge offseason (including another No. 1 overall pick in Jack Hughes), and Hischier is a big reason why. This could be a breakout year for him. 

There is some projecting here, but the Hurricanes might have a star on their hands in Svechnikov. The No. 2 overall pick from 2018 stepped right into the NHL as an 18-year-old and immediately scored 20 goals, a rare accomplishment for a player that young. If he builds off that performance in Year 2, the Hurricanes have the makings of an outstanding forward group to match what might be one of the best defensive units in the league.