Felonious Python
Minor League Degenerate
- Aug 20, 2004
- 31,484
- 9,376
Hockeydb.com and hockey-reference.com keep track of player ages in a given season.Something interesting I keep hearing across the league/hockey world is "The NHL has become a young man's league", which seems to be contrary to a trend I've noticed since COVID hit: Coaches aren't trusting of most non elite tier prospects, would rather play veterans. With improvements in training and medicine, veterans are aging better, meaning slower decline & thus less need for prospects to come up. Teams continue to address needs via trades and free agency, as opposed to letting (uncertain) help come up from their prospect pool.
The NHL isn't as young as people think it is. And certainly the Cup winners aren't very young teams. Only a handful of teams have gone full youth movement over the past couple years. So we're not alone with not playing many u23 guys.
BriseBois only has much input in the 1st rounders and maybe 2nd rounders if we don't have a pick. After that it's all amateur scouts.
There are probably fewer careers ended by injuries, but the league is pretty much the same.
I do think that players look younger than they used to. Partly it's the rest of us getting older, but people really did seem to look older back in the day.
I also just found this article on gymnasts getting older. Élite Gymnasts Are Aging Up