The Primes They are a Changin'

There is a trend in hockey that has changed in my lifetime...What trend is that? It's the "Prime" of players careers...When I was kid, NHL players, hit their "Prime" around 27, 28, 29 years old...These days, the elite NHL players hit their "Prime" around 23-26 years old...

We'll use Sidney Crosby as our example...I don't like Sid the skid, but he is the guy who many have called the best player in the NHL for almost 10 years...Crosby is now 27 years old, and his numbers have declined...And over the past couple years when you look at fantasy hockey forecasts, he is not the #1 guy on draft boards...Last depending on where you looked, he had slipped out of the top 3...But that's just fantasy right...

Like I said his numbers have fallen...And he has had some injury issues...He's wearing down...In 10 years Crosby has played 627 regular season NHL games...13 Olympic games...9 World Championship games...100 NHL Playoff games...That's 749 hockey games in ten years...Along with multiple concussions...Based off his offensive numbers Crosby's prime was between the '06-'07 season and the '09-'10 season...In that time Crosby played 290 regular season games with 404 points, with 62 playoff games and 101 playoff points...Since 2010 the numbers have fallen...

By comparison, Tyler Seguin is 23 and said to be hitting his "Prime" now...He was last year and is this year's #1 projected fantasy pick...Seguin has 5 NHL seasons under his belt...In those 5 seasons he's played 354 regular season games with 282 points, and 48 playoff games with 21 points...

So why is it said that Seguin is hitting his "prime" at 23, with half the experience of Crosby, who (in my youth)  at 27 would have been said to be hitting his "prime," but now is said to be "starting to look at the back-end of his career?"....

It's simple...the elite players now, are coming into the NHL at 18 or 19 years old...they're playing a longer NHL season...They're playing an extended playoff season...They're playing World Championships, and Olympics...And they're playing in a era where the game has gotten faster...the players are bigger, faster, and stronger...Their bodies are having a helluva toll being put on them...You have to hit your "Prime" by 24, because by 27 you have headaches and you're icing your knees twice a day...And some of this may also be why the idea of seeing NHL superstars regularly put up 100 point seasons seems like a memory as well...

I wonder what the "Prime" for bloggers is?