Quote:
Originally Posted by GordonBlue
seemed to be a late bloomer as he didn't make the NHL until he was 20.
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The draft age back then was 20. The cut-off for the 1977 draft was players born before January 1, 1958; similarly the cut-off for the '76 draft was January 1, 1957. Bossy was born January 22, 1957, so he wasn't eligible to be drafted until he was ~20.5 years old.
He joined the NHL as soon as he possibly could under the rules, and won the Calder Trophy w/ 53 goals and 91 points in 73 games. 53 goals by a rookie was an NHL record that stood until Teemu Selanne (at age 22) scored 76 in 1992-93; Bossy's 53 goal mark is still second all-time. (The only other rookies with 50+ goals in their first seasons are Ovechkin (52), Gretzky* (51) and Nieuwendyk (51).)
Mike Bossy was categorically
not a "late bloomer".
(*The NHL don't count Gretzky as ever having had a 'rookie' season because he played in the WHA, but that's the mark he hit as an 18/19-year-old in '79-'80.)