I think that people actually are pretty close to physically prime at 40. The top players fade but are still good enough to play.
What I see here is times that the game changed dramatically. If you have 40 year olds still playing i think it indicates that the game being played is much like it was 20years before. Darwinism - the 'fittest to the environment' get selected and dont drop off until the game changes to where they are no longer fit to it.
I believe, very firmly, that the game began to change at a junior/kid level immediately following the Summit Series, on both sides of the Atlantic.
You can see that guys drafted from 45-60 remained in the game quite strongly. That last burst in 1980 included a few players returning from the WHA. I believe that block from 66-80 would be more filled in without that league. YES, of COURSE expansion played a big in that section, but from that point on there were tons of jobs in the NHL, so, it explains why there were so many at expansion compared to the O6, but it doesnt explain the valley that comes afterwards. Another thing to note is that that entire expansion block is coming from a very small, 6 team, cast of oldtimers. it would look much like the more modern one were their league bigger, i think (but i could be off here)
I believe 10 year olds and under, in 1972, began to hit the NHL in the early 80s, and you can see that that generation, and the ones that followed, did fantastic in terms of lengevity. I believe it was this generation, Gretzky being the OG, that pushed out the guys who were selected/Darwinned to a fitness for the 'old' game 60-75 and change.
and now, we see a small drop in the last 10 years. Well, those guys would have came onto the seen in 1995ish, and everyone from 1995-2004 were selected based on their ability to battle through obstruction or to CAUSE obstruction.
My guess is that the Crosby Ovechkin generation and the ones that follow, will see the numbers rise up to the 2000-2015 levels on that chart... possibly even higher due to more teams.
I havent decided just how much further expansion teams mean.... there are millions of hockey players all over the world, and they are all being looked at and wanting to play for the big bucks. If you are 40 years old they probably arent just giving you a job because 20 new jobs came up... you probably belong to some degree/havent been passed by.
I think, for me this illustrates why the numbers were so crazy in the 80s. There was new crop of supertalented kids playing an evolved game, and they were playing it against guys who hadnt been drafted on their ability to play said game.
Just my thoughts. Don't shoot.
