auld_skool wrote:To me it comes down to this: Would you rather have Rau (or Kloos, or Horn, or whomever) from 18 to 22 yrs old or 21 to 25 yrs old?
Excluding all other considerations you'd obviously want older players - I believe the general scientific consensus is that humans are at their peak in physical ability at age 27 - but there are other factors at play. If a player has any realistic chance to make a living at the game, he's almost certainly not going to be in college at 25. It's too early to tell for the three players you named, but it's at least possible. Pro teams know that players are depreciating assets, so to speak, with a limited potential career span, and won't look fondly on players spending that many of their viable playing years in college. I know we talk about the growing emphasis on smaller, four-year players who aren't top pro prospects, but you don't always know which ones those will be, and if you have a player in juniors for a few years and he really blossoms you're certainly not going to have him in college for four years.
And also, there are things in life besides hockey, and there's an argument that 25-year-olds should be moving on with their lives. Kids will vary - some will never want to leave college; some will feel they're falling behind their peers who've graduated and gotten jobs - but I don't think they'll all want to stay in school that long. And if 25-year-old athletes were common, instead of the exception as they are now, I think a lot of university administrators would wonder whether it really fit in with what college athletics are supposed to be about.