The whole "you're in your 30s so you're done" thing is way overplayed.
It's 2024 now, not 2004, the way athletes train, diet, and even supplement (legally or not) is light years better than what it was in the past, we're seeing top tennis players play almost to age 40 in a sport where you used to be washed up after age 25.
In basketball, LeBron James is turning 40 this year, Durant and Curry are over 35 and still all top players in the league.
It was inevitably going to filter into hockey too, guys will be performing well into their 30s. There's less cheap shots that can lead to career altering injuries and the way the players train, eat, and condition themselves is simply way better.
In the Amazon series you can see McDavid has a full time chef in his home that cooks all his meals for performance.