People obsess over the average age, but aren't considering that the two players really pulling that average up are on the 4th line, at least one of which is likely not going to be in the lineup come playoffs. Possibly not even in the lineup come new year with Philp knocking on the door.
Henrique is 34, but likely to play the fewest minutes of his career this year playing outside the Top 6 for the first time probably ever. I don't anticipate issues there. Ekholm is 34, and maybe there's a bit of risk of fall off later in the year, but he's also elite, and hasn't shown this to be the case so far.
Everyone else is 32 or younger, not old. I'd have some concern if we were the Kings or Penguins and the #1C and #1D are both ancient, but that isn't the case. The only player on the team that plays a feature role that would be considered old enough to possibly fall off due to age is Ekholm, and he's shown no sign of that at all.
This is an easy narrative for people to seize and harp on, but it's a red herring when you actually look at where age is distributed around the roster.
