Lots of talk surrounding the Leafs' poor performance last season has come with the explanation that "they're a young team. Lots of room to grow and develop." What I wanted to know is, is that true? Are the Leafs a young team relatively speaking?
What I did was take stats for all 30 NHL teams last year based on their players' ages and games played and multiple the two together. I then found the average age per man game played and ranked the teams.
| Team | Avg. Age | Avg. Age Rank | Man Games | Sum Age | Sum Age Avg. | Sum Age Rank |
| NYI | 26.2 | 9 | 1563 | 40393 | 25.84 | 1 |
| CBJ | 26.3 | 10 | 1566 | 40679 | 25.98 | 2 |
| WPG | 25.5 | 1 | 1564 | 40956 | 26.19 | 3 |
| BUF | 25.6 | 3 | 1561 | 41179 | 26.38 | 4 |
| EDM | 26.7 | 13 | 1565 | 41207 | 26.33 | 5 |
| OTT | 26.1 | 7 | 1567 | 41391 | 26.41 | 6 |
| TOR | 26.1 | 6 | 1569 | 41508 | 26.46 | 7 |
| CGY | 25.6 | 2 | 1565 | 41696 | 26.64 | 8 |
| COL | 26.9 | 16 | 1563 | 41778 | 26.73 | 9 |
| WSH | 26.1 | 5 | 1566 | 41920 | 26.77 | 10 |
| NSH | 26.2 | 8 | 1568 | 41967 | 26.76 | 11 |
| TBL | 26 | 4 | 1564 | 42213 | 26.99 | 12 |
| CAR | 27 | 17 | 1563 | 42257 | 27.04 | 13 |
| NYR | 27.4 | 22 | 1562 | 42360 | 27.12 | 14 |
| LAK | 26.9 | 15 | 1563 | 42549 | 27.22 | 15 |
| MIN | 27.2 | 18 | 1566 | 42600 | 27.2 | 16 |
| STL | 27.5 | 24 | 1566 | 42656 | 27.24 | 17 |
| CHI | 26.8 | 14 | 1565 | 42670 | 27.27 | 18 |
| ANA | 27.2 | 20 | 1562 | 43035 | 27.55 | 19 |
| PHI | 27.7 | 27 | 1566 | 43233 | 27.61 | 20 |
| BOS | 26.6 | 11 | 1562 | 43323 | 27.74 | 21 |
| VAN | 26.6 | 12 | 1564 | 43514 | 27.82 | 22 |
| FLA | 27.7 | 26 | 1565 | 43742 | 27.95 | 23 |
| DAL | 27.9 | 28 | 1565 | 43958 | 28.09 | 24 |
| MTL | 27.4 | 23 | 1562 | 44095 | 28.23 | 25 |
| PIT | 27.6 | 25 | 1560 | 44208 | 28.34 | 26 |
| SJS | 28.1 | 29 | 1564 | 44296 | 28.32 | 27 |
| DET | 27.3 | 21 | 1562 | 44378 | 28.41 | 28 |
| PHX | 27.2 | 19 | 1564 | 44801 | 28.65 | 29 |
| NJD | 28.8 | 30 | 1560 | 46541 | 29.83 | 30 |
So how young are the Leafs really? Far from "the youngest team in the NHL" they are portrayed to be. So too is LAK, another supposed young team. The youngest team in the NHL last season? The New York Islanders at an average age of 25.84 years old per man game played. The Leafs came in 7th with an average age of 26.46 per man game. One thing to note, there were only 2 playoff teams in the bottom 10, likely due to AHL kids getting the call up once the season was a bust, or in Colorado's case, being real shitty for awhile and drafting top end talent.
Links
Do the Maple Leafs Understand Player Development?
No.
Whoop dee do.
