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Pittsburgh Penguins' Kasperi Kapanen (42) goes into the corner with Minnesota Wild's Jared Spurgeon (46) during the second period of an NHL preseason hockey game in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014.The Associated Press

Unless you're in high school, this is a stat that will make you feel old.

Eleven of the nearly 950 players still in NHL training camps with a few days to go were born in 1996. Several of them were, up until a few months ago, still only 17 years old.

Some may even make their teams, too.

The youngest player in an NHL camp right now is Kasperi Kapanen, the son of former NHLer Sami Kapanen. He's making a serious bid to stick with the Penguins despite turning 18 at the end of July, as teams are getting less and less concerned about having smaller, younger players on their rosters.

That's tough news for junior teams that have already begun play and are waiting to see if they'll get a star back in their lineup.

Here's a look at the 10 youngest players still in camps, as of Thursday morning:

#

Name

Team

Pos.

Birth Date

1

Kapanen, Kasperi

PIT

RW

23-Jul-96

2

Fiala, Kevin

NAS

LW

22-Jul-96

3

Bennett, Sam

CGY

C

20-Jun-96

4

Dal Colle, Michael

NYI

LW

20-Jun-96

5

Pastrnak, David

BOS

RW

25-May-96

6

Nylander, William

TOR

C

01-May-96

7

Ehlers, Nikolaj

WPG

LW

14-Feb-96

8

Ekblad, Aaron

FLA

D

07-Feb-96

9

Fabbri, Robby

STL

C

22-Jan-96

10

Reinhart, Sam

BUF

C

06-Nov-95

On the flip side, the oldest players in camps are all guaranteed jobs. Jaromir Jagr enters this season set to turn 43 in February, nearly a full two years older than Sergei Gonchar, the next oldest NHLer and the only other one over 40.

After that Marty St. Louis, Evgeni Nabokov and Bryce Salvador are the league greybeards at 39, 39 and 38.

A few other interesting numbers as we wait for final cuts:

- Teams on average have 31.6 players still in camp, led by Detroit and the Islanders with 44 each. Both those teams are hanging onto extra players because they have back-to-back preseason games coming up. Many teams are well under 30 players right now and need to only make their final cuts before Tuesday's 23-man roster deadline.

- Only four players are on injured reserve so far, and three of them are essentially retired: Chris Pronger, Marc Savard and Mattias Ohlund. Their teams will keep them on what's known as LTIR to get under the cap this year. The other injured player? Carolina's Jordan Staal, who will miss several months after breaking his leg in preseason.

- The average weight of NHL players this season is a shade over 201 pounds, but there's a ton of variation in there. Flames prospect Johnny Gaudreau is the lightest player competing for a roster spot at a listed 150 pounds. The heaviest? Dustin Byfuglien and John Scott tie at 260 pounds.

- Wearing No. 99 is obviously an impossibility given it has been retired leaguewide, but players in general have moved away from numbers in the 90s. The highest jersey number in the league this year is only 93, which will be worn by four players.

- Other numbers not worn by a single player? 69 and 78.

- A little more than half of players in NHL camps were born in Canada (51 per cent). The rest break down like so: USA (23 per cent), Sweden (8.2 per cent), Czech Republic (3.9 per cent), Finland (3.5 per cent), Russia (3.1 per cent), Slovakia/Switzerland/Germany (3.8 per cent), other countries (3.5 per cent).

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