Quote:
Originally Posted by wireframe
It is only the best players who continue to play into their late twenties and thirties.
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Trouble is, those aren't necessarily the same players who were already in the NHL in their late teens and early twenties. The graph isn't tracking the same group of players over time; players are coming and going all the way along, which is liable to alter the results.
To take two recent Flames as examples, Mackenzie Weegar had his first good offensive season at age 26 – the same age at which Sean Monahan's offence dried up because of injuries. Weegar wasn't in the NHL yet when Monahan emerged as a first-line forward. Monahan may not be in the NHL anymore when Weegar has his best years.
We don't know enough about the methodology behind the graph to assess how well it's compensated for this kind of thing.