Earlier I covered how Anze Kopitar rates among the young forwards in the NHL. Today I thought we'd take a look at how Ryan Getzlaf rates among the, uh, older young players in the league. Eric Staal (he of the newly minted $8.25/7 year deal*) gets a lot of press because scored over 100 points as a 20 year-old, Mike Richards gets acclaim because he plays on the East Coast, and Paul Stastny looks like the Predator without his mask on, but there have to be some out there who would take Getzlaf over all of them. Not me, because Getzlaf takes too many penalties, but someone else. Also, there's something about Getzlaf that strike me as sinister. He looks like he should be in the back of the Bang Bus, not the team bus. Anyway, here's ten players that are around 23 years old. Rate them how you see fit.

*Should Kings' fans start hoping Kopitar gets hurt this season? Nothing career-threatening, but maybe a broken foot or something. At this point I have my fingers crossed that we can sign him for under $7 million.

Mike Richards
Eric Staal
Paul Stastny
Ryan Getzlaf
Rick Nash
Thomas Vanek
Pierre-Marc Bouchard
Dustin Brown
Corey Perry
Nathan Horton
Milan Michalek

It's a pretty eclectic list and I hope I didn't leave anyone out, but if I did then don't mention it. I have a fragile psyche.

Also, Ice Girls! I'm rooting for #9 and # 61.