Which player will be each NHL team’s superstar in 5 years?

Chicago Blackhawks- Alex Debrincat

Time seems to have run out on the Blackhawks near decade of success, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Since 2010, Chicago has brought home three separate Stanley Cups and all those years of success had to come at the cost of several draft picks and prospects, and now the team is starting to feel the blow back of going for it every year. However, the Blackhawks held onto one pick in particular, specifically the 39th pick in the 2015 draft which they used to draft Alex Debrincat, the franchise’s future star once time catches up to their current core.

The hockey world has shocked when a winger of Debrincat’s fell all the way to the second round of the draft and into the defending champion Blackhawks hands, and he’s looking like a bigger steal than anybody imagined. Even before he came to the team, Debrincat was an over two point a game player in the OHL, and post a 127 point season in 62 games in his final season.

The now 20 year old Debrincat is already on the Blackhawks first line, and already scoring at an astounding rate for a second round player. In his first season alone, Debrincat was tied for second on the team with 52 points. Even now in nine games this season, Debrincat trails only Patrick Kane by a single point with seven goals and five assists and looks to be well on pace for another season as one of the Blackhaws top scorer.

Five years from now Debrincat will be beginning to enter his athletic prime at 25 years old, and Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews will be at the end of their current contracts and well past their primes at 34 and 35 years old. If Debrincat develops at his current pace, he could be one of the top scoring wingers in the league. Probably not Rocket Richard contention, but some 40 goal seasons could be on the way.