Which of the current star players will be good at age 35 and which won't?

[glovesave_35]

Good:
Wheeler
Pettersson
Malkin
Crosby
Ovechkin

Bad:
Stamkos
RNH
Erik Karlsson
Neal
Tavares
Duchene

Is Neal a star?

 

[Saitama]

Interesting to see so many positive comments on Wheeler. A lot of Jets fans seem to believe he is already going downhill (even though he just had a career year, is on a powerhouse team, and is in phenomenal shape) and will be crap in two years

A lot of Jets fans? I haven't seen any Jets fans that think this. Literally zero. I may have missed the odd comment or something but otherwise, I have no idea where you're getting that from.

 

[mobilus]

why don't we exclude the big 3

I think it's too early to say about Matthews, Marner and Nylander.

 

[Gordie Howe Army]

will have problems:
- guys who's game relies primarily on speed
- very physical players (increased injury risk)
- anybody with a history of serious back, knee or ankle injuries

will age well:
- crafty, cagey vets with high hockey IQ who are good passers (Backstrom)
- big bodied defenders (Chara)
- those surrounded by other good players (so they don't always have to carry the load)
- anybody who can quarterback a PP1

 

[ChikN]

Tavares doesn’t rely on speed to be effective. Wouldn’t that make him a likely candidate to still be effective at 35? Seen his name a few times here and I just don’t see it. Not that it wouldn’t make me happy as a habs fan.

 

[BAM]

Tavares doesn’t rely on speed to be effective. Wouldn’t that make him a likely candidate to still be effective at 35? Seen his name a few times here and I just don’t see it. Not that it wouldn’t make me happy as a habs fan.

No reason for him to not be able to produce, great IQ, passing, shot, deflections, etc. He could easily have a career like Joe Thornton in his later years

 

[CanuckCity]

Yeah i think its the guys who's primary asset is speed who are the ones most likely to have a severe drop-off. Also those who are heavily reliant on their shot and arent strong skaters.

McDavid is an exception because the rest of his game is also so elite. As others have said he'll find a way to control the game by slowing it down instead. I do worry about serious injury potential with how fast he flies around the ice though.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

Good:
Wheeler
Pettersson
Malkin
Crosby
Ovechkin

Bad:
Stamkos
RNH
Erik Karlsson
Neal
Tavares
Duchene

definitely disagree with Stamkos Tavares Karlsson and Wheeler

 

[coopooter]

Wheeler isn't a good skater? You have no clue what you're talking about lmao.

You obviously don’t know how to read
Point 4 is guys that aren’t good skaters. Draisatl has good straightaway speed like Wheeler.

 

[Rich Nixon]

Bad:
Tavares will definitely drop off quite a bit.
Pavelski.
Wheeler
Draisatl
Pretty much guys that are not good skaters when they slow down one step will cause huge drops in production

Good:
High end speed guys. Guys that will still skate well when they drop a spot
McKinnon
Hall
Mcdavid
Barzal

I actually think the inverse is true. I mean dudes like McDavid are an exception because he's incredible at everything, but players who have never played an outright speed game are often better adjusted for relying on their vision/anticipation/hands. Hall is one of the guys I could see decaying hard at 35. Giroux, for instance, has never been a phenomenally fast skater, his entire game is based off of really smart passing and he can be dominant from a stationary position. He probably won't fall off very hard.

 

[MikeGrier99]

Heatley, Redden, Cheechoo, Lecavalier, Gomez, Mike Richards, Brads Richards, Semin, Briere, Drury, Setogouchi, Hemsky, all pretty good examples of players that fell off a cliff. Lots were probably injury related, some might've just felt the effects of natural aging, or paid less attention to conditioning, or a combination of all those factors.