Younger players better prepared now to impact Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2025-26 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher. In this edition, Drew Bannister, former coach of the St. Louis Blues and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, and defenseman with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and New York Rangers, provides his thoughts on why so many young players are making major contributions for their clubs during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

I think what you've seen over the last 10 years is just the switch in the athletes' attitude toward their training. What I mean by this is, whether it's off-ice training, their diet, the mental aspect of the game ... I feel these things are more readily available to players today and they're taking advantage of it. I think they're using it very early on coming up through major-junior or college.

The other aspect is, the younger players are refining at an early age the details that go into the finite skills needed to succeed. The one thing I noticed about players nowadays, compared to maybe when I was growing up, most of them are one-sport athletes. So technically they're not as athletic but they're very good at their trait. When I was growing up, hockey was a sport that I played from September to whenever we finished. In grades 9 and 10, I played basketball in high school, I played volleyball, and I was heavily involved in track. I played baseball for a few years at a high level and golfed a lot.

The one-sport athlete is very dedicated to their craft and they have the support of junior and college clubs not only in-season but during the offseason when it comes to a mental skills coach, a dietician, the ability to have a strength and conditioning coach daily with them at the rink or in the summertime. I think these are all things that kind of contribute to players being more mature in that aspect and ready to make the jump quicker than maybe 20 years ago. I think that has a lot to do with what you are seeing in the success of some of the young players nowadays.

When it comes to having the trust in a young player to succeed in pressure moments, I think that evolves throughout a season and the expectations and values you have as a coach for the team within the structure. Those younger players who buy into that and are able to execute is something that happens throughout the year. Gaining trust from a coach is never easy, whether it's a young player or veteran player. But the trust that's gained allows young players to play in critical moments and enables coaches to be able to put them out there at those times to execute.

I know (Carolina Hurricanes forward) Logan Stankoven is still a young player (23 years old) but it seems like he's been around for a while since he's played with the Dallas Stars and now the Hurricanes. As a smaller player (5-foot-8, 165 pounds) ... I think it goes to show the evolution of the game, where we're going to with the speed, the skill level, and also the willingness, the high compete of some of these younger and smaller players with how they play the game, how detailed and how smart they are. I think Stankoven is one of those players in that group of being undersized, but he's very valued in a lot of situations.

I still believe having veterans in your lineup who have had playoff success is very important to the leadership of those young players. I think the success of an American Hockey League franchise is a big part of that, too, in being able to develop players and play in meaningful games toward the end of the season and in playoffs. Playing in critical moments in the AHL playoffs is a big part of an organization's success and how they develop players. I think there's a lot that goes into that than just the veteran players that you surround them with. It's important to have veterans that have had success around the younger players to help them through those times.

The biggest misconception about young players and playoff hockey, in my opinion, is that coaches don't trust young players. At the end of the day, it's up to the player to be able to gain that trust and do the right things throughout the year to gain the coaches' trust. Coaches will play young or old players, so long as they buy into the system. I really don't think it has anything to do with an age gap. Youth has a lot to do with the success of any program, and I feel coaches want to be able to embrace that youth and give them the opportunity to play in those situations because that's the only way you can build an organization of strength from within and moving forward.