Courtesy Alan Caldwell:

Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Best '91s?
My attention was called the other day to a post on a WHL message board regarding who the best 16 year old (1991-born) players in the league were this year. There must have been a good half-dozen names up for discussion.

So far this year, there have been 37 16 year olds who have played at least 15 games in the league this year. Here they are, with position, team, and stats:

Brayden Schenn (F-BRN) 29gp, 26pts, 43pim, +11
Tyson Barrie (D-KEL) 29gp, 20pts, 18pim, +7
Stefan Elliott (D-SAS) 29gp, 20pts, 21pim, -15
Evander Kane (F-VAN) 29gp, 17pts, 39pim, +4
Landon Ferraro (F-RDR) 30gp, 16pts, 30pim, -6
Scott Glennie (F-BRN) 23gp, 15pts, 16pim, +2
Jared Cowen (D-SPO) 28gp, 11pts, 22pim, +16
Cam Braes (F-LTH) 29gp, 10pts, 18pim, +7
Linden Vey (F-MH) 20gp, 8pts, 0pim, +3
Adam Hughesman (F-TRI) 23gp, 8pts, 7pim, +1
Jimmy Bubnick (F-KAM) 28gp, 8pts, 16pim, -2
Brandon Herrod (F-PA) 30gp, 8pts, 17pim, -2
Cody Carlson (D-MH) 22gp, 6pts, 19pim, +7
Brad Hoban (F-SC) 28gp, 6pts, 11pim, -5
Brodie Melnychuk (D-BRN) 22gp, 5pts, 23pim, +5
Matt Mackenzie (D-CGY) 24gp, 5pts, 6pim, +8
Justin Maylan (F-MJ) 15gp, 4pts, 6pim, -3
Jason Gardiner (F-TRI) 16gp, 4pts, 35pim, -2
Ryan Howse (F-CHI) 22gp, 4pts, 0pim, -6
Cody Eakin (F-SC) 26gp, 4pts, 33pim, -1
Curtis Hamilton (F-SAS) 28gp, 4pts, 12pim, -5
Garrett Mitchell (F-REG) 29gp, 4pts, 47pim, 0
Brenden Silvester (F-SEA) 17gp, 3pts, 4pim, +2
Ryan Kowalski (F-PG) 29gp, 3pts, 29pim, -7
Brayden McNabb (D-KTN) 30gp, 3pts, 21pim, +4
Alex Pym (D-REG) 17gp, 2pts, 16pim, -1
Ryan Button (D-PA) 22gp, 2pts, 16pim, -8
Collin Bowman (D-KEL) 25gp, 2pts, 20pim, +5
James Henry (F-VAN) 16gp, 1pts, 18pim, +2
Brett Ponich (D-POR) 20gp, 1pts, 8pim, -7
Charles Wells (F-SEA) 22gp, 1pts, 9pim, -2
Steve Chaffin (D-SEA) 26gp, 1pts, 37pim, -10
Art Bidlevskii (D-PG) 28gp, 1pts, 33pim, +1
Joe Antilla (F-KTN) 28gp, 1pts, 23pim, -3
Chase Schaber (F-CGY) 19gp, 0pts, 2pim, -2
Joel Rogers (D-SC) 21gp, 0pts, 21pim, -6
Brennan Yadlowski (D-LTH) 23gp, 0pts, 25pim, +5

The list is ordered by points, but at least in the case of defencemen, you don't need to have a lot of points to be doing your job. So take that into consideration.

One thing jumps out: when it comes to points, Brayden Schenn is dominating. A six point lead at this point translates into a 15-20 point lead at the end of the year. He is also a +11 on a team which many pundits didn't think would be that good. At least among forwards, he has no equals in the "best 16 year old" category. He's big, he scores, he's scrappy, what's not to like here.

Among the defencemen though, there's at least three obvious, serious candidates for "best": Barrie, Elliott, and Cowen. Personally, I think Elliott's -15 is a bit high for my liking, even considering the overall weakness of the Blades defensively. This is a guy who, while he is scoring a lot of points, is probably having some problems defensively if he is a -15. And on the other side of the coin, it's hard not to be impressed by Jared Cowen's big +16.....but in a reverse of Elliott, Cowen is playing for an overall strong team defensively. So you have to consider that too - if the two were to switch teams, their +/- numbers would probably be a bit different. And then right smack in the middle is Barrie, who has both Elliott's scoring numbers as well as Cowen's strong +/- number. Hard to pick just one, I like them all for different reasons. But Barrie seems to be a good compromise choice. Overall though, I have to go with Schenn as the best '91 in the league so far this year. My opinion only though.....your opinion is no less right or wrong.

I also want to single out a guy like Cody Carlson, who does not have a lot of points but is a strong +7 on a Tigers team that is allowing as many goals as it scores.