90’s hockey till about 01. Then 06-10. Then 2016-2020. And now 2023 to present.
From late 2015 till right up to Covid, it seemed like many players were emerging right from the gate as star players. Between 2016-2020, guys like Panarin coming from Russia, Matthews, McDavid, Laine, Tkachuk, Keller, McAvoy, the Barzal vs Boeser Calder race (Barzal w/ 85 points as a rookie was insane), the 2017 draft featuring Makar, Pettersson, Hischier, Heiskanen. Then Q. Hughes vs Makar, Brady Tkachuk, Dahlin with guys like Kucherov, Mackinnon, Draisaitl, Barkov, Pastrnak, Hedman, Karlsson, Burns, Pietrangelo, Point, Josi, Marchand, etc taking a bit longer to get there but ultimately becoming elite stars of this league.
2020-2022 was boring because of the lockout and not many new players emerged other than Fox really.
But starting 2022, guys like Jack Hughes, Kaprizov, Robertson, Suzuki, Bouchard, Stutzle etc, the rest of the draftees from that 2015-2020 period, finally coming along.
We’ve got a really strong foundation of talent in this league right now because of 2015-2020. From 2020-2022 it was pretty weak in terms of talent drafted and not many stars have come out from this period. Right now, the talent level is as high as it’s ever been and will continue to grow with the likes of Bedard/Celebrini/Michkov/Carlsson/Fantilli/Smith/Demidov etc around the corner and with a couple more deep drafts coming up.
Right now, hockey should be entering a decade of excitement and I think in the future, looking back, 2023-2033 will be one of the best decades in hockey. Poor goalies.