While it may be tempting to think that some of this weight increase has come from fat, like you see with some NFL linemen, this doesn't appear to be the case.  Body fat percentage has remained stable since the early 1980's at around 10.5%, meaning  that the majority of weight increase in hockey players has come from increased muscle.

Getting stronger takes time

Every summer I meet parents and coaches who believe that their young players need to put on weight if they want to play hockey at a higher level.  While it is important to be close to the average size of current players if you want to succeed at the highest level; getting there takes time.

Until a player is about 18 months past their growth spurt weight gains are going to come mostly through natural growth, training at that stage of development has very little affect on body weight. Once through the growth spurt kids can gain as much as 20-25 lbs over the course of a summer.

Even drafted players get bigger as they progress through their careers.  Drafted players on average come in at about 191 pound and over the first seven years of their career work their way up to the 202lb league average.

Taking a gradual approach to reaching the desired weight for hockey not only gets rid of unrealistic expectations that can affect a young athletes confidence it also ensures improved performance rather than just weight gain.

Strength to weight ratio

The strength to weight ratio, the players maximum strength divided by their body weight is an important factor in the athlete's ability to accelerate and produce power on the ice.  Gaining weight too quickly by focusing on bodybuilding type programs can decrease the power to weight ratio making the player slower and have less endurance.

NHL players know the importance of increasing power to weight rather than just size, one of the tests used by some NHL teams to measure upper body strength is the bench press.

The average maximum bench press for NHL players is about 280 lbs with some of the guys able to bench press close to 400 lbs.  During the early part of their career average strength increases by about 21% and even though there is an increase in body weight their strength to weight ratio increases by about 18%.  This is a big part of the reason why these players are faster and have better acceleration than those that don't make it.

It is important to have the right type of body to play at the highest levels of hockey but you can't sacrifice speed, acceleration and endurance just to get bigger, it won't make you a better player.  Focus on improving your performance the size increases will come with time, in young players it isn't something you can force.