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TRENT HUNTER MADE THE most of his second chance and rewarded the New York Islanders for their patience.

Hunter came to training camp in the fall of 2002 with a job all but assured after a 30-goal season in the AHL and a solid performance for the Isles as a playoff callup. A top-line spot on right wing was his to lose--and he lost it, spending only eight games with the Isles before being sent to Bridgeport.

Instead of sulking, Hunter went back and posted another 30-goal season. And when he came to camp last September, he won the job he had failed to capture the year before. Not only did Hunter become the first Islander rookie in 15 years to break the 20-goal mark, he outdistanced a strong field to earn the nod as our HOCKEY DIGEST Rookie of the Year.

Hunter entered the final weeks of the season leading all rookies in goals, plus-minus, and game-winning goals, and jockeying for the lead in points. Not bad for a 23-year-old who was given away by the team that drafted him (Anaheim, in the fourth round in 1998) and had to spend an extra season in the minors before earning a full-time NHL position.

At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, Hunter is a force in the corners, where he has a knack for digging loose pucks away from opposing defensemen. And he has the kind of shot that handcuffs goaltenders--he's one of the few players in today's NHL who's a threat to score from long distance.

But that's not all that impressed Isles coach Steve Stirling, who had Hunter on his Bridgeport teams during the past two seasons.

"He's probably been our steadiest forward," says Stirling. "He just keeps working; he plays hard and plays smart. We knew he had NHL hands and an NHL head; he just had to learn to play through things and find out he could survive. His skating has improved, and he's a better defensive player than he's given credit for."

But it's his offensive skills that have earned Hunter full-time NHL employment.

"I haven't seen anyone in a long time who's so good at coming off the boards or out of tight spaces with the puck," says Isles captain Michael Peca, who's had Hunter on his right side for parts of the season. "He has a nose for open ice and getting to the net."

Though no one likes to spend more time in the minors than necessary, Hunter admits that a second season in Bridgeport turned out to be the best thing for everyone.

"It was tough bouncing up and down," he says. "But I worked hard on all aspects of my game. Steve [Stirling] knows what I can do, and I know his tendencies behind the bench, and that's helped me feel more confident, too."

While Hunter and the Isles battle for a playoff berth, Ryan Malone was often the best player on the ice for a Pittsburgh team that set an NHL mark for consecutive home losses and escaped the league record for consecutive defeats only because one of the losses came in overtime. But the first Pittsburgh-born Penguin showed that the Pens made a smart move by taking him with 115th overall pick in the 1999 Entry Draft.

With Mario Lemieux injured for most of the season and other veterans pared from the roster in cost-cutting purges, Malone made the most Of his opportunity. He entered the final weeks of the season second among rookies in goals and among the leaders in points despite playing for a team headed for the bottom of the NHL standings.

Like Hunter, Malone is no 18-year-old prodigy. The 6-foot-4. 215-pounder spent four years at St. Cloud State, then played three games for the Penguins' AHL farm team in Wilkes-Barre. But his showing in training camp impressed new coach Ed Olczyk.

"After seeing him in camp and watching him progress, our expectation level for him was really high," Olczyk says. "He had some tough times at the start of the year, but he stayed with it."

The Penguins didn't have to look far to find Malone--his father, Greg, is in his 13th season as the team's chief scout The elder Malone spent most his 11 NHL seasons in Pittsburgh, scoring 143 goals in 495 games for the Pens from 1976-83. His son's strong play is one of the few bright spots on the NHL's weakest team, though the Pens were also delighted with the play of No. 1 overall pick Marc-Andre Fleury. The 18-year-old was Rookie of the Month in October, but was sent back to juniors later in the season when the Penguins' season collapsed. But Fleury showed more than enough to assure the Penguins that they made the right choice.

The Boston Bruins picked Patrice Bergeron 44 spots after the Penguins took Fleury, never dreaming that the 18-year-old would parlay a second-round selection into a top-six forward spot on one of the NHL's best teams. But that's exactly what happened.

As the youngest player in the NHL, Bergeron was on pace for 20 goals and 50 points while helping the Bruins battle Toronto and Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead.

"I think he's a complete player," coach Mike Sullivan says of the rookie center. "He never ceases to amaze with he way he improves in every facet of the game. He's just gotten better every day since training camp."

Bergeron led all rookies with seven power-play goals during the first three-quarters of the season, but he's more than just a gunner.

"He can play at both ends of the rink," says Sullivan. "He gets big goals at key times, he can kill penalties, he takes face-offs on the right side, and he plays in a lot of key situations for us. That's really something special for an 18-year-old kid."

Bergeron's all-around game has impressed his teammates, too.

"He's poised beyond his years," center Brian Rolston says. "To be as aware as he is in the defensive zone as well as the offensive zone--he plays the whole game."

Bergeron put his offensive game on display on national TV in late February in Philadelphia, where he beat Sean Burke from the right circle to break a tie in a game the Bruins won 43, but says he's "more the type of guy who's going to pick up a rebound. I just try to be in the right spot at the right time."

Hunter, Malone, and Bergeron are part of an excellent class of first-year for wards that also includes Montreal's Michael Ryder, Toronto's Nick Stajan, and Calgary's Matthew Lombardi, plus 18-year-olds Eric Staal of Carolina and Nathan Horton of Florida. It's as a good a crop of first-year forwards as the NHL has seen in several years.

And though Bergeron has given the Bruins a boost up front, fellow rookie Andrew Raycroft might be their most important addition.

With a goals-against average around 2.00 and a save percentage in the neighborhood of .930, the 24-year-old goaltender came out of nowhere to take the No. 1 job away from veteran Felix Potvin, who the Bruins signed as a free agent with the expectation that he would plug their hole in goal. Instead, the 135th pick in the 1998 draft (15 spots ahead of Hunter), took the starting job away from the veteran after spending three years at Providence in the AHL learning his craft.

"He's a great kid," says Sullivan, who coached Raycroft at Providence and got the top job in Boston this season. "He wants to get better and that's how he approaches every game."

Like many of today's young goaltenders, Raycroft is efficient rather than spectacular, relying on positioning rather than reflexes to stop pucks. "I don't try to do too much out there," he says. "I just try to let the play come to me, get in position, and let things happen. I think that's the most efficient way to do it."

Potvin, who serves as Raycroft's backup and mentor, says the Bruins are being rewarded for their patience.

"They brought him up the right way," who played in the NHL as a 20-year-old. "He played a couple of years in the minors and they didn't rush

Both of our top first-year defensemen are Europeans. But while Marek Zidlicky spent a lot of time on the other side of the Atlantic honing his skills, Joni needed only one season after being drafted to make an impact.

The Philadelphia Flyers wanted Pitkanen badly--they shipped forward Ruslan Fedotenko to Tampa Bay to move up to fourth in the 2002 Entry Draft to nab him. The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder spent one more year playing at home in Finland before joining the Flyers last fall. And though he's barely 20, he's already the best offensive defenseman the Flyers have had since Eric Desjardins was in his prime.

The best thing, as far as the Flyers are concerned, is that he's only going to improve as he matures and grows more accustomed to life in the NHL

"He's going to be a special player when he matures," says coach Ken Hitchcock. "It seems like he's very comfortable for someone who's only 20, and he's a guy who's only going to get better."