NHL Age Question?

Question

Has there ever been a player who started playing ice hockey when he was at the age of 16 or older than 16 who has made it into the NHL??? Who was he and how did he do?

Answer 1

Sorry bro but I don't think so.

Answer 2

Sorry to say but you got a late start, and i don't think so. Most Pro's started skating around age 3 and started playing at 4-5 years old. I got a pretty late start at 7. But 16 or over? Sorry dude but i just don't think it could happen. But hey, anythings possible, and don't ever let the answers you get here or anything else stop you from trying your hardest, working your *** off, and doing every little thing you can to try to get there!

Answer 3

18 is the min age.  You can be drafted at any age but gotta be 18 to play.

Answer 4

I doubt it, because then the player would have to be CRAZY GOOD.  Patrik Elias started playing hockey when he was 13 I think though.

Answer 5

Yes, I can think of one player who did not start playing organized hockey until he was 16 years of age or older. His name was Todd Bergen.

He did not play hockey in an organized league until he was 16 but was able to make the Prince Albert Raiders a few years after he did join a hockey league.  He was drafted 98th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, even before he played a game with the Raiders.

He had a successful non-NHL career as he had reached 81, and 96 point seasons respectively before his NHL debut.

In the NHL, he still produced the offense he did in the WHL. He only managed to play in 14 NHL games his whole career, but scored 11 goals, 5 assists for 16 points.

He had such a short-lived career due to injuries and a bad realtionship with then coach of the Philadelphia Flyers Mike Keenan.

Another interesting fact I know about Bergen is that Bergen is the NHL leader - in the modern-era -  for career goals-per-game at 0.786, with a minimum of 10 games played; although he is not officially recognized for holding the career goals-per-game record by the NHL on account of him playing so few games.

Hope this is what you were looking for and hope I helped.

EDIT - How am I getting thumbs down on answering his question? Trolls must be awake.

Answer 6

In the NHL database, every single player in the database has all teams listed back to when they were 14 years old, a handful of players (less than 10 since 1935), like all-star defenceman Ed Jovanovski didn't play travel hockey until they were 16, but Ed started playing hockey when he was 12 (according to the CBC documentary about his career).