Are todays players washed up earlier?

[bambamcam4ever]

I think it's the opposite for star players today honestly. Look at a HOFer like Trottier, rapidly declined at only age 32.

 

[Byron Bitz]

I think we’ve got less elite players in their mid 30s than we used to. Players do seem to be declining earlier and I’m not sure why.

 

[Bounces R Way]

Less them declining and more that the youth is much better. Why pay a vet 3-4 million when you can get comparable production from a kid in their early 20's for a quarter of that?

 

[Nithoniniel]

Nope in the 90s you heard that a players prime was in 26, 27. But today we are seeing more rapid declines imo.

You heard that then and not now because nowadays people have actually done the research to show that was an erroneous claim. Said research was also based on a large time frame, not just recent years. Players always did reach their peaks early, teams were just bad at reacting to it.

 

[Belieber]

Old players used to glide around hooking and holding. They were washed up by the same time maybe earlier but the game wasn’t as fast so it didn’t show as much.

 

[hohosaregood]

I'd say that a lot of guys in that age group just got caught by the transition in hockey styles that the NHL went through.

 

[Zenos]

I think it's the reverse. Today's player trains 12 months a year, is on strict diets and partakes in the most up to date scientific methods to stay fit. The partying, drinking and drug lifestyle so prevalent in decades past has been significantly reduced. You simply can't last in today's NHL living like that. It seems that all the best players are training in groups every summer.

That's definitely not the case. I wish it weren't true, but I can guarantee we'll still see Players Tribune articles in 10 years chronicling drug abuse, alcoholism, etc within the NHL.

And while training and lifestyle have improved a lot since the 80's, NHLers are still pretty "normal" when it comes to diet. They go to normal restaurants, cook regular meals, drink beer and eat pizza after wins on the road.

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Nope in the 90s you heard that a players prime was in 26, 27. But today we are seeing more rapid declines imo.

Pundits were wrong.

 

[psycat]

Until you give some evidence I have to go with my gut feeling and say no.

Seems pretty much like always, some players last well into their mid-late thirties, some fizzle out before that and most high prolific scorers(with a few exceptions like the ones named above) have their career highs in their early twenties.

I suspect you just don't remember the players from the 90s who declined early as well as the ones who stuck around longer.

 

[authentic]

There is literally no evidence of this, infact if anything players generally don't decline as early as they used to.

 

[authentic]

Last years top 15 scoring leaders and their current ages.

McDavid - 21
Giroux - 30
Kucherov - 25
Malkin - 32
MacKinnon - 23
Hall - 26
Kopitar - 31
Kessel - 30
Wheeler - 32
Crosby - 31
Ovechkin - 33
Stamkos - 28
Marchand - 30
Barzal - 21
Voracek - 29

8 of the top 15 are in their 30s, 10 are 28 or older and only 4 were under 25 for any part of last season. Come again?

 

[authentic]

I think it's the opposite for star players today honestly. Look at a HOFer like Trottier, rapidly declined at only age 32.

Bossy and Orr had to retire before 30, look at the steep decline of Lindros, Denis Potvin etc., the only real star player of this era who noticeably declined well before 30 is Ovechkin and he's led the NHL in goals more than just about every other player in NHL history since that decline.

 

[Jeremy Hronek]

I think we just forget about the players who fell off in their early 30's because when remembering the past, we tend to only remember the stars.

 

[Tripod]

Last years top 15 scoring leaders and their current ages.

McDavid - 21
Giroux - 30
Kucherov - 25
Malkin - 32
MacKinnon - 23
Hall - 26
Kopitar - 31
Kessel - 30
Wheeler - 32
Crosby - 31
Ovechkin - 33
Stamkos - 28
Marchand - 30
Barzal - 21
Voracek - 29

8 of the top 15 are in their 30s, 10 are 28 or older and only 4 were under 25 for any part of last season. Come again?

Thank you for saving me some time as I was going to post the same thing.

 

[authentic]

Thank you for saving me some time as I was going to post the same thing.

That's only forwards too. I'm pretty sure that Hedman, Karlsson, Doughty, Burns, Subban, etc. are all over 28.

 

[The Macho King]

That's only forwards too. I'm pretty sure that Hedman, Karlsson, Doughty, Burns, Subban, etc. are all over 28.

Hedman is 27.

 

[authentic]

Hedman is 27.

My point still stands though. It appears as though the majority of the top players today are not younger than 27-28, let alone 25 or early 20s like so many have been saying for whatever reason.

 

[The Macho King]

My point still stands though. It appears as though the majority of the top players today are not younger than 27-28, let alone 25 or early 20s like so many have been saying for whatever reason.

TBF I think there's a bit of push and pull here. We have to separate the elite from (I guess you would say) replacement-level players.

I don't know if the data supports it, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out that the median age for players has dropped in the past few years.

 

[authentic]

TBF I think there's a bit of push and pull here. We have to separate the elite from (I guess you would say) replacement-level players.

I don't know if the data supports it, but I wouldn't be shocked to find out that the median age for players has dropped in the past few years.

Maybe, but I would bet it's not significant and I believe the discussion was mostly about the elite-superstar level players anyway.

 

[Phillybean]

Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook are two examples. Chicago has been hit a bit harder than most teams, I think it is games played on the body and playoff games are worth 2-3 regular season games as far as being harder on the body & mentally.

 

[SCD]

Combination of speed and salary cap constraints.

 

[Sabre the Win]

Here is the answer to your question

A New Look at Aging Curves for NHL Skaters (part 1)

 

[Big McLargehuge]

If anything has really changed, it's been the average age of the bottom six forwards/bottom pairing defensemen, thanks in equal parts to the salary cap and the evolution of the game/rules. There was bound to be a weird transition between a pre-cap and a post-cap world and a lot of players got lost in that shuffle as it takes time for the pipeline to react to such changes (sucks to be you, utterly immobile punishing defenseman born a decade too late).

 

[b in vancouver]

First - I think you're misremembering things. Before Bourque, Gretzky, Messier and co. played so late into their careers, guys were starting to retire earlier and earlier.

These guys are all around 33/34
Bergeron, E. Staal, Getzlaf, Pavelski, Parise, J. Carter, Vanek, Kesler, Burns, Weber, Suter, Byfuglien,

We'll see about Corey Perry. Backes isn't what he was but still playing well. D. Brown had a bounce back year. Jury is out on Eriksson - he's never been the flashiest.
Phaneuf and Seabrook's game seemed to have fallen off but... ?

That group has lost a lot of talent for different reasons from Horton, to M. Richards to Zherdev etc.
But a lot of other guys were still around last year or the year before and playing well - like Stempniak, Enstrom, Moulson, Michalek,

 

[Intact]

Yes

A lot of modern players excel at the technical aspects of the game but not much else. They are great skaters, good speed, active sticks, and the defensive side of the game has been drilled into them since they were in pee wee. The problem? the talent level is minimal, once they lose their speed everything else starts to drop off very quickly. Players have lower creative IQ out there and this is why you see a quicker decline as they don't have the talent to compensate. We have illusions about players being better than past decades but all i see is better equipment and more efficient training methods to maximize someone's skill set but the top end guys aren't as good.

Godly post. The big rough guys of the 90s who would make the lineup with no real talent are just wearing a different mask these days. Its also why you get old guys like Joe Thornton who got no speed and can still dominate, high IQ guys will always dominate