Also, very few young players were competing for top scoring finishes during 96-97 to 02-03 compared to the previous years or the following years. This shows the weakness of the talent entering the league in those years.
From 92-93 through 95-96, top 10 scorers - 17 of the 40 spots (43%) went to players under 25. (Turgeon, Selanne, Mogilny, Recchi, Fedorov, Roenick, Bure, Shanahan, Jagr, Lindros, Zhamnov, Renberg, Forsberg, Kariya).
From 96-97 through 02-03, top 10 scorers - 11 of the 70 spots (16%) went to players under 25. (Jagr, Kariya, Palffy, Forsberg, Allison, Demitra, Elias, Iginla, Thornton, Heatley).
99-00 through 02-03 was particularly lacking in young scorers, with only 4 of 40 top 10 spots (10%) claimed by players under 25. (Elias, Iginla, Thornton, Heatley).
And then from 03-04 to 09-10, 24 of 60 top 10 scoring spots (40%) went to players under 25. (Kovalchuk, Hossa, Tanguay, Ovechkin, Heatley, Crosby, Staal, Malkin, Spezza, Parise, Getzlaf, Backstrom, Stamkos, Kane).
It's pretty clear that the weak draft classes of the mid to late 90s caused the late 90s/early 00s to have weaker competition for top scorers. Especially the early 00s.