New South Wales quick Patrick Cummins (18) and Victorian paceman James Pattinson (21) are two of the new faces, while John Hastings, Xavier Doherty, Usman Khawaja, David Hussey and Jason Krejza also received full deals after making appearances over the summer.
But it is the inclusion of Cummins and Pattinson that has Hilditch excited, predicting they could become star players.
"The key ones and the most exciting ones I suppose are the two young fast bowlers," Hilditch said.
"Patrick Cummins, who's actually the youngest player we've ever put on a contract list since the system came in. He's only just 18 years of age, so a really exciting prospect for us. And James Pattinson's got his first contract even though he's played one game for Australia.
"They're obviously really exciting additions, young players with great potential.
"Test cricket is our big concern and we've injected players into that - young batters, two very exciting young quicks and we really need to find two or three champions in the next two years. And in some of those young players we think we've got two or three champions."
Veteran opener Simon Katich joined Marcus North in not being offered a new deal by Cricket Australia, and Hilditch said the former opener had taken the news hard.
"It was obviously devastating for Simon, since he went out of the Australian side then fought his way back in through weight of runs he's been a really fantastic player for us and he's been extremely successful," he said.
"It was a big decision, obviously really hard on Simon, but in our view the opening partnership is critical. It takes time to get a good opening partnership and we now think the time is right to make sure we've got the right opening partnership come the Ashes."
Despite the focus on youth, Hilditch said there was still a need for players such as Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey to guide the next generation.
"We want to win games, we want to have a winning culture, but we've also got to build for the future," Hilditch said.
"It's a long way away but two years down the track is the next Ashes and that's a big goal for us.
"We are bringing in younger players, it's probably the youngest contracted squad we've ever had - I think the average age is about 28.
"Having said that, we think it's important that the opening partnership has a good established opening partner in (Shane) Watson.
"It's the same in the middle order, there's still a big role for Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey to play mentoring that young group of players that are going to come into the middle order."
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