Hyman hits 50 at age 31

Équipe: 2024-25 Canadiens de Montréal

Date de création initiale: 25 mars 2024

Publié: 25 mars 2024

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

I am not a fan of the ageist undertones on this site. Fans of all teams act as though players on multi-year deals heading into their mid 30s are time bombs. Basically the undertones are, "we will have to accept some years of decline in order to get access to the prime years", rather than saying, "I love seeing this player at his peak and am proud that he plays for my team".

There is very little recognition of the things players between the ages of 30-37 bring to teams. When one of those players has a good season, they are viewed as an outlier. If a player in that age range puts together multiple good seasons, they are viewed as less valuable than players who put up significantly less points because those younger players are "obviously eventually going to get there".

Case in point: Nobody is trading Cole Caufield for Zach Hyman who is heading for his second consecutive PPG season at age 31 and who just hit 50 goals.

I get it, time is undefeated! I know one day soon Caufield will outscore Hyman and that season everyone who values youth over experience will be thrilled that "the world makes sense again". But where is the recognition that "if we had 30 more goals this season, the team who lost the highest number of 1 goal games this season would probably be in contention for the playoffs".

Veteran players like Monahan, Marchessault, Stephenson have so much left to give to their teammates and to the fans. They are no more risky than playing an unproven player who was drafted in the first round and expecting them to put up 60 points for the 1st time.