Quote:
Originally Posted by cannon7
With modern medicine the average NHL career today is 5 years. The average retirement age is between 28-30. A player remaining productive at a high level into their 30's is the exception, not the rule. As such paying a guy $7-8M a season for 8 years in what is most likely going to be his least productive years is a bad investment.
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5 years? That also includes all the players that aren't NHL calibre. This article is BS. Part way through it admits that good players average 12 years and bad players average 1 year, bit then tries to hyper focus on injuries as the culprit.
Top defencemen don't even typically reach their prime until their late twenties or even early thirties.
Hanifin also plays a style of game that isn't especially hard on the body. He has no nagging injury issues.
Hanifin will almost certainly be at his current or better level for another 4-6 years, and still serviceable as a top 4 after that. As far as long term veteran contracts go, that puts him in the very low risk category.
Hanifin, barring an unforeseen injury, is a good bet. About as good as these 7-8 year vet contracts can be