San Jose is an odd duck. By all accounts they should have been going into the rebuild crapper as Marleau, Thornton and Pavelski aged. Burns is 33, Vlasic 31, Braun probably past his prime and even Couture is 29. Hertl and Meier are solid young talents, but overpaying for Kane and adding Karlsson seems like the wrong long-term direction. I think they can be really competitive for this year and maybe next, and then I think the age of that group just drags them into the competitive but not going anywhere category (and then headed for a not-insignificant rebuild) after.
Hertl is 24, Meier is 21, Labanc is 22, Suomela is 24. They have a lot of young parts.
To be fair this is real life, not some fantasy league where 30 is a death sentence. With growing multi-million dollar contracts, and a softer style of play, we're seeing more and more "older players" not just hang around in their 30's, but excel. 6 out of the 10 top scorers in the league were 30+ (7/11 if you want to count Ovi!), as much as we hear the NHL is becoming a young persons game, it's actually becoming a stars game where good players, who take care of their bodies and train hard are able to stick around and compete. Players like Thornton, Burns, Pavelski are physical marvels. Burns is in better shape than most NHL players, no matter what their age. So I don't think they really need to be thinking rebuild. It's not about age anymore it's about compete and those Sharks players can still compete even if their beards are greying.
