Young guns

By Jill Painter on October 30, 2008 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Drew Doughty is arguably the Kings' best defenseman at 18 years old, and Oscar Moller, who seems likely to remain with the Kings this year, is just 19. Of course, the Kings are young overall, but Terry Murray was asked why so many players are doing so well in the NHL at such a young age.
``Since '04, the demands and the importance of managing your cap the right way is bringing lots of young players into the game today,'' Murray said. ``The young guys today are good players. They're coming through programs where they're young kids and highly skilled. They play a lot of games and play 12 months a year up in Canada now or even in Europe and the U.S. There's plenty of experience, and we're welcoming these young players. We have 30 teams in the league and we need to keep bringing these young guys in the game. It's a high-skilled, fast-paced game and they can bring it every night.''

J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey. E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra
@inlandnewspapers.com.

Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.