Three NHL Players Resisting Father Time in 2023-24

Sidney Crosby, Victor Hedman and Jonathan Quick already have had thriving NHL careers so far, and the three are still doing extremely well in 2023-24, writes Adam Proteau.

For some time now, the NHL has been a younger man’s league. 

Teenagers can often break into the league and quickly adapt so that, by age 25, they already have seven years of experience. 

However, there’s something to be said for the NHL’s older players. Despite the wear and tear of season after season, there are a number of NHLers who are still thriving despite being in their thirties.

Here are three examples of players – one at each position – who’ve been excellent this season despite the creeping influence of Father Time:

Any list of the NHL’s elite older players would be incomplete without mentioning the incredible season Crosby is having this year. At age 36, Crosby leads Pittsburgh’s point-getters with 22 points in 18 games. We shouldn’t be surprised by anything ‘Sid the Kid’ does any longer, but it’s still a marvel that he’s producing at more than a point-per-game pace.

Some might have thought Crosby had an anomalous performance in 2022-23 when he posted 33 goals and 93 points in 82 games – his highest totals in those categories since the 2018-19 campaign when he generated 35 goals and 100 points in 79 games – but Crosby is putting the hockey world on notice once again. If the Penguins are going to have any shot at making the playoffs in the highly competitive Metropolitan Division, they’re going to need Crosby healthy and as productive as he’s been so far this year.

In 1,208 career regular-season games, Crosby has 962 assists and 1,524 points. He’s almost assuredly going to break the 1,600-point mark before he hangs up his skates, but he’s already done enough to be a first-ballot Hockey Hall of Famer, and they better be erecting a statue of him in Pittsburgh immediately after he retires.

The 33-year-old Hedman had a subpar season last year – at least, by his lofty standards – with nine goals and 49 points in 76 games. That said, Hedman wasn’t completely healthy for much of the season, and the cumulative effect of so many playoff games he was playing with Tampa Bay clearly impacted his overall performance.

But now that he’s firing on all pistons this year, Hedman is looking like his old self once again. In 20 games with the Bolts this season, the lanky Swede has 17 assists and 21 points, putting him on pace to match, if not improve on, his career-best 65-assist, 85-point showing from 2021-22.

Hedman may not win another Norris Trophy as the NHL's top blueliner, but so long as he can perform well at both ends of the ice, he’s going to delight Lightning fans and, perhaps, help drive them to another deep post-season run. Like Crosby, he’s on his way to becoming a Hall of Fame candidate, and as he moves towards his mid-thirties, Hedman is showing he’s got a lot more left in the tank.

Let’s be clear – in recent years, Quick has not looked like the star netminder who won a couple of Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings. That’s why the Kings finally parted ways with the 37-year-old last season, and though he did get another Cup win under his belt as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights last season, many wouldn’t have been surprised to see Quick retire.

Instead, Quick signed a one-year deal to be Igor Shesterkin’s understudy with the New York Rangers – and in seven appearances, he’s been delightful, posting a 5-0-1 record, a .940 save percentage, a 1.68 goals-against average and two shutouts, including a blanking of Crosby’s Penguins this past week. He’s been everything the Blueshirts wanted in a No. 2 netminder, and he’s got a legitimate shot at winning another Cup before he’s through playing.

Quick’s showing the Kings and Golden Knights made a mistake in cutting him loose. Success is the perfect revenge for athletes, and Quick is making his doubters eat crow.