Players who became scorers at older age

[Midnight Judges]

I've got to give you credit for somehow turning your post into a slam against Crosby. At least you're always on brand.

Crosby doesn't focus on defense, nor should he. Crosby's defensive metrics for most of his career have been no better than Ovechkin's - but it just doesn't matter very much for an offensive forward. The amount of a goals an elite forward can create massively outweighs the amount of goals against a forward can prevent. Playing him like a shutdown center would be dumb. That's not a slam on Crosby, it's just reality.

I am definitely slamming the Canadian media narrative that Crosby coincidentally became great at defense right when his offense fell off, or that his penalty killing (10 seconds per game) warranted him winning the Conn Smythe over Kessel despite his 21 goal / 65 point pace as a minus player, or that he's been playing with scrubs who owe the entirety of their success to him (despite most of them having similar success elsewhere), or that he's taking on a significantly defensive role despite offensive zone starts in the 58-63% range (which is among the highest in the NHL).

 

[Henkka]

Johan Franzen.

It was not a surprise, because he had like 14+4, 30+12, 23+2 like seasons in Sweden as 17-18-19 year old.

Then was mostly used as defensive player, at Linköping and started as a late-bloomer from Red Wings bottom6 for first 2 seasons.

Did put 27-34-28-29 goals seasons in NHL as 28-32 year old.

 

[LuckyPierre]

Alfredsson (despite winning the Calder) had his 40 goal seasons at age 32 and 34.

 

[BondraEra]

I feel like most of you are just naming players that had solid seasons before blossoming into stars. Like, Markus Naslund was expected to score goals and despite some early struggles, pretty much did that. No one expected Brad Marchand to become a top-10ish player, but he scored 21 goals in his age-22 season. He's been scoring from day one. I feel like Mike Knuble has been the only answer in line with the spirit of the thread.

My answer was gonna be Scott Hartnell, while he didn't put the puck in the net as much as you'd like for a 6OA pick, he did pot 25 in his age-23 season, so I'm not as sure now.

 

[NoName]

His alter ego may be “Rat Man”, but Brad Marchand is probably the best recent example of a late-blooming superstar.

If only his character matured along with his game.

 

[CanadienShark]

Joe Pavelski.

 

[East Coast Icestyle]

I feel like most of you are just naming players that had solid seasons before blossoming into stars. Like, Markus Naslund was expected to score goals and despite some early struggles, pretty much did that. No one expected Brad Marchand to become a top-10ish player, but he scored 21 goals in his age-22 season. He's been scoring from day one. I feel like Mike Knuble has been the only answer in line with the spirit of the thread.

My answer was gonna be Scott Hartnell, while he didn't put the puck in the net as much as you'd like for a 6OA pick, he did pot 25 in his age-23 season, so I'm not as sure now.

I think I agree with your post the most. If a player is a 20+ goal scorer in their early 20s, they aren't really 'blossoming' into a scorer just because they scored 5-10 more goals in a season when they were older.

 

[Javaman]

Alex Burrows.

Started out as bottom 6 agitating, defensive winger who was good for maybe 10 goals a season until the season he was 27 years old.

In that season (08/09), he finished with 28 goals... amazingly, none of them were on the power play. That was the beginning of 4 year stretch where he scored 28, 35, 26, and 28 goals while he was 27 - 31 years old. Even in the season he scored 35 goals, he still had more shorthanded goals than PP goals.

Burrows definitely bucked the trend of forwards putting up their best offensive numbers by the time they turned 25.

 

[Just Linda]

Not quite goal scoring but overall offensive beast.

Mark Giordano has been amazing in his 30s. He broke 10 goals in his 28 year old season (I think) and that's the only time before 30 he broke 30 goals but then up to the time he was 37, he'd never scored less than double digits.

 

[Albatros]

Although always a scorer, Joe Mullen was 32 when he hit his career high 51 goals and 110 points.

 

[MMANumminen]

Are you 100 years old?

He went to school with Lou Marsh so he's 141. Respect