Youngblood

Dean Youngblood, a seventeen-year-old farm boy, leaves home for a shot at a career in professional hockey, joining a minor-league team in a Canadian town. He has the skating and scoring ability, but the league demands more than skill: he is expected to drop the gloves and fight whenever he is challenged. His adjustment to the team and the town is further complicated by his romance with the coach's daughter. The arrival of a veteran player who becomes a mentor figure, and the hard lessons of a violent sport, force Dean toward a choice about what kind of player he is willing to become.

Peter Markle directed and wrote the screenplay, with Patrick Wells and Peter Bart producing alongside him. The film was Markle's first feature as director, preceding Bat★21, Nightbreaker, El Diablo, Wagons East!, Flight 93 and later television work. Rob Lowe plays Dean, with Cynthia Gibb as Jessie Chadwick, Patrick Swayze as Derek Sutton, Ed Lauter as the coach Murray Chadwick, Jim Youngs as Dean's brother Kelly and former NHL player Eric Nesterenko as his father Blane.

Released by United Artists and MGM in January 1986, the film cost about 8 million dollars and took roughly 15 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.2 from around 17,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2 from about 250 votes, while a small set of critics' reviews averages 4.5 out of 10, below the audience scores.