Meet Mr. NHL Average, the player with the average age, height and weight
By Joe Lago
The Athletic's James Mirtle dug into the player data for the 2024-25 NHL season to assess the oldest and youngest, the tallest and shortest and the heaviest and lightest of the league's nearly 700 players.
Mirtle's deep drive produced the league-wide averages for age (28.3 years old), height (73.6 inches) and weight (201.1 pounds). Not surprisingly, the majority of NHLers are Canadian (41.2%), and the most were drafted in the second round (46.1%), just a tad more than the first round (42.6%).
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Who comes closest to fitting all of the criteria as Mr. NHL Average? Someone who's 28, stands between 6-foot-1 and 6-2 and weighs 201 pounds?
For this exercise, nationality and draft selection were excluded since no overwhelming majority exists for either. And while a little flexibility was allowed on height and weight, there wasn't any latitude with age. Only 28-year-olds were included.
Here are the players who come closest to meeting the NHL's average characteristics. As you might have guessed by now (the above photo gave it away), Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl is the biggest star of Team Average.
BOSTON BRUINS
David Pastrnak, right wing, 6-0, 196
DETROIT RED WINGS
Dylan Larkin, center, 6-1, 199
FLORIDA PANTHERS
Sam Bennett, center, 6-1, 195
Sam Reinhart, center, 6-2, 193
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Christian Dvorak, center, 6-1, 192
OTTAWA SENATORS
Michael Amadio, right wing, 6-1, 200
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Michael Eyssimont, center, 6-0, 201
Darren Raddysh, defenseman, 6-1, 195
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Bobby McCann, center, 6-2, 210
William Nylander, right wing, 6-0, 202
NEW YORK RANGERS
Igor Shesterkin, goalie, 6-1, 197
ST. LOUIS BLUES
Kasperi Kapanen, right wing, 6-1, 194
WINNIPEG JETS
Mason Appleton, center, 6-3, 194
Dylan Coghlan, defenseman, 6-2, 207
Haydn Fleury, defenseman, 6-3, 207
EDMONTON OILERS
Leon Draisaitl, center, 6-2, 209
LOS ANGELES KINGS
Kevin Fiala, left wing, 6-0, 205
Warren Foegele, left wing, 6-2, 204
Adrian Kempe, right wing, 6-2, 200
SEATTLE KRAKEN
Jared McCann, left wing, 6-1, 191
Joey Daccord, goalie, 6-2, 201
VANCOUVER CANUCKS
Dakota Joshua, center, 6-3, 206
Jake DeBrusk, left wing, 6-1, 198
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Ivan Barbashev, center, 6-0, 198
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