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The NHL Is Getting Older Again

The league got younger for more than a decade after the 2005 lockout, and “young man’s game” became the line. Since 2018-19 it has aged seven seasons in a row. Young players still score at about the league’s rate, but fewer of them play, and players 30 and older now get more than a third of the games. We dated every player’s age on February 1 of every season since 1917-18.

Verdict: Data story

By Edgehalla ResearchPublished 11 min read

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On Feb. 5, 1980, Gordie Howe was the last player introduced at the NHL All-Star Game in Detroit. The crowd of 21,002 at Joe Louis Arena stood, and the ovation lasted four minutes. He was 51 and played for Hartford. He didn’t score, but he stole the puck and set up Real Cloutier for the last goal of the night.

The Campbell Conference roster included Edmonton’s 19-year-old centre, Wayne Gretzky. That season Howe was the oldest player in the NHL and Gretzky the youngest. Two seasons later the league was the youngest it has ever been.

By 2025-26 the league was old again. Count each player once for every game he played, and only one season since 1969-70 was older: 2005-06.

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Two seasons after Howe’s last, the league was at its youngest

Howe had retired from Detroit in 1971, come back in the World Hockey Association two years later, and returned to the NHL with Hartford when it was one of four WHA teams to join in 1979. His teammates that winter included Dave Keon, 39, and, for part of the season, Bobby Hull, 41. By a rough count of team ages, which leaves out players traded during the season, Hartford was the oldest team in the league that season, with an average age of about 28.2. Vancouver and Edmonton were the youngest, at about 24.7.

By 1981-82 the league belonged to the young. The average age of the players in an NHL game was 25.6, the youngest season on record. Teenagers played 4% of all games. Dale Hawerchuk, 18, scored 103 points in 80 games for Winnipeg; Bobby Carpenter, also 18, played 80 for Washington. Players 22 and under scored about 30% of the points, and the league’s ten top scorers averaged 24.7 years. The oldest man in the league was Keon, still in Hartford, at 41.

In 2025-26 the average age of the players in an NHL game was 28.5. We take each player’s age on February 1 and count him once for every game he played. Howe’s 80 games for Hartford in 1979-80 count 80 times. A call-up who played one game counts once. By that count only one season since 1969-70 was older than 2025-26. That was 2005-06, and its players were older by only about two weeks on average. For an older league than that, go back to the late 1960s. In 1967-68, the first season after expansion doubled the league from six teams to twelve, the average was almost 29, the oldest of any season since the 1920s.

The NHL was youngest in the early 1980s and has aged every season since 2018-19

Average age on February 1 of each regular season, skaters and goalies

Show data
By games played, age fell from 28.88 in 1967-68 to 25.60 in 1981-82, rose to 28.53 in 2005-06, fell to 27.19 in 2018-19 and climbed back to 28.49 in 2025-26.
SeasonBy games playedEach player counted once
1917-1828.0 years28.2 years
1918-1928.6 years28.7 years
1919-2028.0 years28.0 years
1920-2128.6 years28.6 years
1921-2228.7 years28.5 years
1922-2329.2 years28.7 years
1923-2427.8 years27.7 years
1924-2527.6 years28.0 years
1925-2627.1 years27.1 years
1926-2728.3 years28.1 years
1927-2828.0 years27.9 years
1928-2927.3 years27.1 years
1929-3026.9 years26.8 years
1930-3126.8 years26.6 years
1931-3227.5 years26.9 years
1932-3327.6 years27.4 years
1933-3427.5 years27.2 years
1934-3527.7 years27.3 years
1935-3628.0 years27.1 years
1936-3727.8 years27.5 years
1937-3827.7 years27.2 years
1938-3927.6 years26.9 years
1939-4027.1 years26.9 years
1940-4126.3 years25.9 years
1941-4226.3 years25.9 years
1942-4327.0 years26.3 years
1943-4427.1 years26.2 years
1944-4527.4 years27.0 years
1945-4627.7 years27.2 years
1946-4726.8 years26.2 years
1947-4826.3 years25.6 years
1948-4926.3 years25.6 years
1949-5026.7 years25.2 years
1950-5126.5 years25.6 years
1951-5226.4 years25.8 years
1952-5326.2 years25.4 years
1953-5426.4 years25.9 years
1954-5526.1 years25.4 years
1955-5626.1 years25.6 years
1956-5726.0 years25.4 years
1957-5826.2 years25.8 years
1958-5926.8 years26.4 years
1959-6027.2 years26.8 years
1960-6127.3 years26.5 years
1961-6227.7 years26.7 years
1962-6328.1 years27.3 years
1963-6428.3 years27.2 years
1964-6528.1 years27.1 years
1965-6628.4 years27.1 years
1966-6728.9 years27.8 years
1967-6828.9 years28.0 years
1968-6928.8 years27.9 years
1969-7028.6 years27.8 years
1970-7128.2 years27.4 years
1971-7227.7 years27.4 years
1972-7327.1 years26.6 years
1973-7426.9 years26.4 years
1974-7526.6 years26.1 years
1975-7626.7 years26.1 years
1976-7726.6 years26.3 years
1977-7826.6 years26.2 years
1978-7926.4 years26.0 years
1979-8026.3 years26.0 years
1980-8125.9 years25.5 years
1981-8225.6 years25.1 years
1982-8325.7 years25.3 years
1983-8425.8 years25.2 years
1984-8525.7 years25.3 years
1985-8625.7 years25.2 years
1986-8725.8 years25.5 years
1987-8825.9 years25.5 years
1988-8926.2 years25.6 years
1989-9026.5 years25.9 years
1990-9126.5 years25.9 years
1991-9226.9 years26.3 years
1992-9326.9 years26.4 years
1993-9427.0 years26.5 years
1994-9527.3 years26.7 years
1995-9627.4 years26.6 years
1996-9727.6 years27.0 years
1997-9827.8 years27.0 years
1998-9927.9 years27.3 years
1999-0027.9 years27.3 years
2000-0128.0 years27.4 years
2001-0228.2 years27.5 years
2002-0328.4 years27.6 years
2003-0428.2 years27.5 years
2004-05––
2005-0628.5 years27.8 years
2006-0728.4 years27.7 years
2007-0828.4 years27.6 years
2008-0928.1 years27.5 years
2009-1028.1 years27.4 years
2010-1127.9 years27.2 years
2011-1228.0 years27.3 years
2012-1327.9 years27.4 years
2013-1427.8 years27.2 years
2014-1527.8 years27.2 years
2015-1627.5 years26.9 years
2016-1727.5 years26.7 years
2017-1827.3 years26.8 years
2018-1927.2 years26.8 years
2019-2027.4 years26.9 years
2020-2127.5 years27.0 years
2021-2227.7 years27.1 years
2022-2328.0 years27.2 years
2023-2428.2 years27.5 years
2024-2528.4 years27.7 years
2025-2628.5 years27.8 years
  • WHA years: 1972-73 to 1978-79
  • 1967-68: Expansion to 12 teams
  • 1981-82: Youngest season
  • 2005-06: First season after the lockout
By games played = each player counted once for every regular-season game he played. Each player counted once = each player who appeared that season counted once, however few games he played. NHL games only: WHA games (1972-79) are not included. The 2004-05 season was cancelled.

The chart’s second line counts every player once, however many games he played. In 1969-70, Howe’s 76 games for Detroit count 76 times on the first line and once on the second, the same as Johnny Bower’s single game for Toronto. Since 1945-46 the second line has always run younger, by anywhere from a quarter of a year to almost a year and a half, because the players with only a handful of games are mostly call-ups in their early 20s. It shows the same turn. On that count 2025-26 was the oldest league since 1968-69.

The wild swings at the far left of the chart are a few men at a time. Through 1924-25 the league never had 100 players in a season; in 1917-18 it had 45. Counting age on Feb. 1, the ten youngest players in NHL history were all 17, and all of them played during the Second World War, between 1942-43 and 1944-45.

The real old-timer era was 1967 to 1971

Just before that youth wave came the oldest NHL of the modern era. In 1969-70 the league had 31 players aged 36 or more. Together they played more than a tenth of all the games, the biggest share players that old have had in any season. They scored about a tenth of the skaters’ points too. Howe, 41, played all 76 games for Detroit and was ninth in the league with 71 points. Bobby Orr, 21, led it with 120. Jacques Plante, 41, and Terry Sawchuk, 40, were still in goal. The oldest man of all was Bower, 45, in that one game.

Players 36 and older had their biggest share of games in 1969-70; players 22 and under in 1981-82

Age on February 1, share of all regular-season games played, since 1945-46

Show data
Players 36 and over peaked at 10.6% of games in 1969-70, fell below 1% in the 1980s and reached 6.7% in 2007-08; players 22 and under peaked at 28.4% in 1981-82 and were 11.8% in 2025-26.
Season22 and under36 and over
1945-4615.9%0.7%
1946-4722.4%0.1%
1947-4824.9%0.0%
1948-4921.9%0.0%
1949-5019.1%0.0%
1950-5118.2%0.4%
1951-5219.3%0.1%
1952-5322.7%0.9%
1953-5424.6%2.0%
1954-5520.6%0.3%
1955-5619.2%0.0%
1956-5719.9%0.0%
1957-5817.0%0.4%
1958-5915.1%0.6%
1959-6011.2%0.7%
1960-6110.9%1.6%
1961-6212.2%1.9%
1962-6313.0%2.4%
1963-648.2%3.8%
1964-6514.0%6.4%
1965-6612.9%6.2%
1966-679.2%6.4%
1967-689.0%7.2%
1968-699.1%9.5%
1969-7012.5%10.6%
1970-7115.2%9.2%
1971-7214.7%5.5%
1972-7320.1%5.0%
1973-7421.8%4.1%
1974-7523.5%3.0%
1975-7620.9%2.7%
1976-7722.4%2.9%
1977-7824.4%3.3%
1978-7922.8%1.9%
1979-8023.5%1.9%
1980-8126.0%1.2%
1981-8228.4%1.6%
1982-8327.4%0.9%
1983-8423.6%0.1%
1984-8526.1%0.5%
1985-8626.2%0.3%
1986-8725.7%0.4%
1987-8822.6%0.8%
1988-8920.5%0.8%
1989-9016.6%0.8%
1990-9117.1%0.7%
1991-9214.4%0.6%
1992-9313.6%0.7%
1993-9414.5%0.8%
1994-9514.0%1.1%
1995-9615.5%1.8%
1996-9715.6%3.1%
1997-9815.5%3.9%
1998-9914.3%2.6%
1999-0012.8%3.8%
2000-0112.3%4.9%
2001-0211.0%5.6%
2002-0312.2%5.6%
2003-0410.1%4.7%
2004-05––
2005-0612.4%5.9%
2006-0712.4%6.4%
2007-0813.0%6.7%
2008-0913.5%6.2%
2009-1013.1%6.4%
2010-1114.0%5.9%
2011-1215.0%5.6%
2012-1314.3%5.2%
2013-1413.6%5.0%
2014-1514.5%4.8%
2015-1615.6%4.1%
2016-1716.1%4.7%
2017-1816.0%3.8%
2018-1916.8%2.5%
2019-2014.1%2.6%
2020-2114.9%2.9%
2021-2212.3%3.8%
2022-2310.7%3.9%
2023-2411.1%4.1%
2024-259.9%3.4%
2025-2611.8%4.7%
  • WHA years: 1972-73 to 1978-79
  • 1967-68: Expansion to 12 teams
NHL games only. In the WHA years (1972-79) the rival league signed NHL players, so some of the NHL’s veterans and prospects played those seasons elsewhere and are missing from this chart.

Old-timer games were already rising in the last Original Six seasons, and they kept rising after the 1967 expansion added six teams at once: about 6% of all games in 1965-66, 7% in 1967-68 and 11% in 1969-70. Then the share fell, at the same time as two changes. A rival league, the World Hockey Association, had signed 67 former NHL players by the time it began play in 1972. And the NHL kept adding teams. By 1974-75 players 36 and over had about 3% of the games, and in every season from 1982-83 to the end of the 1980s they had under 1%.

One gap in these numbers is Howe himself. He came out of retirement in 1973 and played six WHA seasons from age 45, and none of those games count here, because this is NHL games only. His 1979-80 season with Hartford, at 51, does count, and no NHL player has ever been older. Some of the 1970s drop in old-timers is men like Howe who were still playing, just not in the NHL. How much, these numbers can’t say.

For a decade, it really was a young man’s game

After 1981-82 the league grew older again for more than two decades. Then came a second youth wave. From 2005-06 to 2018-19 the average age, counted by games played, fell by more than a year, and the idea that the NHL had become a young man’s game was largely right. In 2018-19, Rasmus Dahlin played all 82 games for Buffalo at 18, Andrei Svechnikov all 82 for Carolina at 18, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi 79 for Montreal at 18. Elias Pettersson, 20, scored 66 points for Vancouver. Players 22 and under took 16.8% of the games.

The old men were scarce. Matt Cullen, 42, was the oldest player in the league, for Pittsburgh. Only three players aged 36 or more played all 82 games: Andy Greene, Justin Williams and Patrick Marleau. Players 36 and over took 2.5% of the games, their smallest share since 1995-96. They scored less than 2% of the skaters’ points.

Counted by minutes on the ice too, the league got younger until 2018-19 and older seven seasons in a row

Average age on February 1; the minutes line counts each skater by his time on ice (skaters only)

Show data
By games played, age fell from 28.53 in 2005-06 to 27.19 in 2018-19 and rose to 28.49 in 2025-26; skater age counted by minutes on the ice moved the same way (27.13 to 28.52).
SeasonBy games playedSkaters, by minutes playedEach player counted once
2005-0628.5 years28.7 years27.8 years
2006-0728.4 years28.5 years27.7 years
2007-0828.4 years28.4 years27.6 years
2008-0928.1 years28.1 years27.5 years
2009-1028.1 years28.1 years27.4 years
2010-1127.9 years27.9 years27.2 years
2011-1228.0 years27.9 years27.3 years
2012-1327.9 years27.9 years27.4 years
2013-1427.8 years27.8 years27.2 years
2014-1527.8 years27.8 years27.2 years
2015-1627.5 years27.5 years26.9 years
2016-1727.5 years27.4 years26.7 years
2017-1827.3 years27.2 years26.8 years
2018-1927.2 years27.1 years26.8 years
2019-2027.4 years27.4 years26.9 years
2020-2127.5 years27.5 years27.0 years
2021-2227.7 years27.7 years27.1 years
2022-2328.0 years28.0 years27.2 years
2023-2428.2 years28.2 years27.5 years
2024-2528.4 years28.4 years27.7 years
2025-2628.5 years28.5 years27.8 years
  • 2018-19: Youngest since 1993-94
The minutes line uses total regular-season time on ice from the NHL stats API (published from 1997-98). 2012-13 (48 games), 2019-20 (cut short) and 2020-21 (56 games) were short seasons; each season is counted on its own, so they still compare.

Then the league aged seven seasons in a row

Then the youth wave turned. Every season since 2018-19 has been older than the one before, seven in a row: 27.2, 27.4, 27.5, 27.7, 28.0, 28.2, 28.4 and 28.5. The league had not aged that many seasons running since a streak that ended in 1998-99.

The minutes tell the same story. Count each skater once for every minute he was on the ice instead of every game, so the men who play the big minutes count for more. The average skater still went from 27.1 to 28.5. Back to counting games, by position: forwards got about a year and a half older (26.8 to 28.3). Defencemen got about a year older (27.5 to 28.6). Goalies went the other way, from 30.1 to 29.6, so the aging is a skaters’ story.

That brings back the question this story started with: is it still a young man’s game? By 2024 one of the league’s top officials was saying the league was getting younger. Bill Daly, the NHL’s deputy commissioner, was quoted in Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts column. On Sept. 9, 2024, PPP Leafs, a Maple Leafs fan site, passed his words on from what it called “a recent 32 Thoughts”:

Skill level is off charts, the league becoming younger and younger.
— NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly, quoted in Elliotte Friedman’s 32 Thoughts, as reported by PPP Leafs (September 2024)

By the time his words were reported, the league had just aged for a fifth straight season. Cathy Squires, the PPP Leafs writer who passed them on, checked Daly’s claim at the time against NHL skaters’ birth dates and games from 2012-13 on. She found the same turn after 2018-19, so the aging was already plain to see when he spoke. Our full record agrees. It adds goalies, the two seasons since and every season back to 1917-18.

The 30-somethings took the games

Most of the extra years came from players 30 to 35. The very old added only a little. In 2018-19 players 30 to 35 played about a fifth of all the games (21%). By 2025-26 they played about a third (32%), their biggest share since 1963-64. Players 36 and over gained a little, from 2.5% of the games to 4.7%. Players 23 to 29 lost the most, from 60% of the games to 51%. Players 22 and under went from 17% to 12%.

Players 30 to 35 went from a fifth of the games to almost a third

Share of all games played, by age on February 1, 2018-19 vs 2025-26

Show data
Players 30 to 35 went from 21.0% of games to 32.0%, while players 22 and under fell from 16.8% to 11.8%.
2018-192025-26Change
22 and under16.8%11.8%−5.0 pts
23 to 2959.7%51.4%−8.3 pts
30 to 3521.0%32.0%+11.0 pts
36 and over2.5%4.7%+2.2 pts
Shares of all regular-season games played (skaters and goalies). Each season adds to 100%.

Leave out every player 36 or older, and the rest of the league still went from 26.9 to 28.0. So most of the aging happened among players under 36. Newcomers also got fewer games. Players in their first NHL season played under 4% of all games in each of the three seasons from 2022-23 to 2024-25, the smallest shares since 1966-67. In 2016-17 they had played about 7%. First-year players are not older than before (about 22 on average). There are just fewer games for them.

Pittsburgh shows the change on one bench. In 2023-24 Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin all played 82 games at 36 or older. By the same rough count, the Penguins were the league’s oldest team in four of the last eight seasons, at almost 32 on average in 2024-25. In 2025-26 they were second, a shade behind Winnipeg, where Jonathan Toews had come home. Chicago was the youngest, at under 26.

The last few seasons set five marks the league had not seen in decades. The table lists them. Read the right-hand column: the last time the league looked like this, the year was 2005-06 at the latest, and four of the five go back to the 1960s.

Five marks the recent seasons set, each the most extreme in at least 20 years. Ages count each player once for every game he played, except the row that counts each player once.
MeasureRecent valueLast time it was this extreme
Average age, by games played28.49 (2025-26)28.53 (2005-06)
Average age, each player counted once27.82 (2025-26)27.87 (1968-69)
Share of games by players 22 and under9.9% (2024-25)9.1% (1968-69)
Share of games by players 30 to 3532.0% (2025-26)32.4% (1963-64)
Share of games by first-season players3.4% (2022-23)2.8% (1966-67)

Schaefer and Celebrini are the exceptions

The league still feels young, because its brightest new stars are. The youngest player in the league in 2025-26 was Matthew Schaefer, 18 on Feb. 1. He played all 82 games on the Islanders’ defence. In May he won the Calder Trophy as “the youngest winner in NHL history at 18 years and 223 days,” The Canadian Press reported, and the first unanimous one since Teemu Selanne in 1992-93. He “set NHL records for an 18-year-old defenseman with 23 goals and 59 points.” Macklin Celebrini, 19, scored 115 points for San Jose, fourth in the league. Two seasons earlier Connor Bedard had played 68 games for Chicago at 18.

Schaefer and Celebrini make the league look young. Count the games, and it isn’t. Teenagers played about 1% of all NHL games in 2025-26, against 4% in 1981-82. Four teenagers played 70 games or more, against seven in 2018-19. Even the scoring leaders got older. The top ten averaged 28.5 years, against 26.5 in 2018-19, and Celebrini was the only one under 26.

If the young players had got worse, their scoring per game would show it. So we compared skaters 22 and under, about 180 a season, with all skaters. In 2018-19 they scored a little above the league’s rate per game. In 2025-26 they scored right at it. A drop that small could be luck. A recent season has fewer than 200 young skaters, so one big year, like Celebrini’s 115 points, moves it. To test that, we re-ran each season thousands of times, each time drawing its players at random from that season’s own roster (some twice, some not at all). From one re-run to the next, the young players’ number moved up and down by about as much as the drop. Their share of the games fell from about 17% of all games played to about 12%. Luck alone would not explain a drop that big.

The table shows six seasons side by side. In the last column, 1.00 means a young skater scored exactly as often per game as the league did. The numbers in brackets show where 9 in 10 of those re-runs landed. If two seasons’ brackets overlap, the difference between them could be luck. Every season sits close to 1.00, and every bracket in that column takes in 1.00. In the share column, 2025-26’s brackets (10.1 to 13.8) sit entirely below 2018-19’s (14.5 to 19.1).

Young players kept scoring at the league’s rate but got fewer games. Skaters 22 and under on Feb. 1: their share of all games played, and their points per game as a multiple of all skaters’ rate (1.00 = the league’s rate). In brackets: where 9 in 10 random re-runs of that season landed.
SeasonSkaters 22 and underShare of all gamesPoints per game vs league
1981-8222128.4% (25.1 to 31.6)1.02 (0.95 to 1.10)
2018-1919416.8% (14.5 to 19.1)1.06 (0.97 to 1.15)
2022-2315810.7% (8.9 to 12.4)0.95 (0.86 to 1.04)
2023-2415311.1% (9.3 to 12.9)0.98 (0.90 to 1.06)
2024-251459.9% (8.2 to 11.6)1.05 (0.95 to 1.14)
2025-2616311.8% (10.1 to 13.8)0.99 (0.90 to 1.09)

The shape of the lineup shows where the games went. Each panel below shows the share of games played at each age. In the early 1980s the games peaked sharply at 23 to 25. In the late 1960s and the years after the 2005 lockout they spread wide, into the mid-30s. Since 2022-23 the games are spread almost evenly from 24 to 29: each of those ages gets between 7.5% and 8.6% of them. Compared with the late 2010s, there are fewer games at every age from 19 to 25 and more at every age from 28 to 34.

Fewer games now go to players 25 and under, more to players 28 to 34

Share of all games played at each age on February 1, all the seasons in each span added together

Show data
The average age of each span, counted by games played: Original Six, 1946-47 to 1966-67 27.0; First expansions, 1967-68 to 1971-72 28.4; Youngest era, 1980-81 to 1986-87 25.8; After the lockout, 2005-06 to 2009-10 28.3; The youth dip, 2016-17 to 2019-20 27.3; Now, 2022-23 to 2025-26 28.3.
Original Six, 1946-47 to 1966-67First expansions, 1967-68 to 1971-72Youngest era, 1980-81 to 1986-87After the lockout, 2005-06 to 2009-10The youth dip, 2016-17 to 2019-20Now, 2022-23 to 2025-26
180.2%0.0%1.0%0.2%0.3%0.2%
190.9%0.1%2.9%1.0%1.3%0.6%
202.8%2.7%5.4%2.2%2.7%1.9%
215.6%3.9%7.5%3.9%4.9%3.3%
227.3%5.7%9.5%5.6%6.6%4.9%
238.6%8.2%10.1%7.5%8.5%6.5%
249.2%8.2%10.3%7.7%9.2%8.1%
259.5%7.8%10.0%8.5%9.7%7.5%
269.3%7.4%9.6%7.4%9.0%8.3%
278.8%7.8%7.8%7.1%8.5%8.4%
288.2%7.1%6.8%7.2%7.4%8.6%
296.9%6.1%5.4%7.1%6.3%8.1%
305.8%6.5%3.9%6.2%5.6%7.1%
314.9%5.7%3.4%5.6%4.8%6.3%
324.0%4.8%2.5%5.2%4.2%5.8%
333.2%3.5%1.6%4.5%3.5%4.4%
342.1%3.2%0.9%3.7%2.5%3.5%
351.2%3.1%0.8%3.3%1.7%2.5%
360.7%2.5%0.3%2.6%1.4%1.6%
370.5%1.9%0.2%1.6%0.9%1.1%
380.3%1.5%0.1%0.9%0.5%0.8%
390.2%1.1%0.0%0.6%0.3%0.4%
400.1%0.4%0.1%0.3%0.2%0.2%
410.0%0.3%0.0%0.1%0.1%0.0%
420.0%0.5%0.0%0.2%0.1%0.0%
Each panel adds to 100% of the games played in its span. The point at 18 includes the few younger players; the point at 42 includes everyone 42 and older. NHL games only.

Seven men 36 and older played all 82

The games the young players lost went to older men, and more of them now play every night. In 2025-26, seven players aged 36 or older played all 82 games: Brent Burns, Alex Ovechkin, Claude Giroux, Jonathan Toews, Ian Cole, Mikael Backlund and Alex Killorn. In 2018-19 there had been three.

The oldest of them, Brent Burns, was 40 on Feb. 1, the oldest player in the league, and he had not missed a game in more than a decade. On April 4, 2026, in Dallas, he became “the second player in NHL history to appear in 1,000 consecutive games,” the Associated Press reported. He had been in the lineup for every game since Nov. 21, 2013, with San Jose. Only Phil Kessel, at 1,064, has gone longer. The next day at Ball Arena, before a game against St. Louis, the Avalanche played a video from Kessel. “I know how tough that is to do,” he said.

Ovechkin, also 40, played all 82 games and scored 32 goals. Toews played all 82 at 37. He had stepped away after 2022-23; The Hockey News reported that he “was forced to step away after suffering from long COVID and chronic immune response syndrome.” In June 2025 he agreed to sign with Winnipeg. “It’s very special to come home and play in front of my family and friends in Manitoba,” he said.

Players 36 or older on Feb. 1, 2026, who played every one of their team’s 82 games in 2025-26. There were three in 2018-19 and nine in 2023-24.
PlayerAge on Feb. 1TeamPoints
Brent Burns40.9COL35
Alex Ovechkin40.4WSH64
Claude Giroux38.1OTT49

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Rows 4–7 of 7
PlayerAge on Feb. 1TeamPoints
Jonathan Toews37.8WPG29
Ian Cole37.0UTA23
Mikael Backlund36.9CGY43
Alex Killorn36.4ANA33

Players 36 and over are back from their low of 2.5% of all games in 2018-19 to 4.7% in 2025-26. That is well short of the years after the 2005 lockout (6.7% in 2007-08, with 54 players aged 36 or more), and far short of Howe’s 1969-70. The 40 of them scored about 5% of the skaters’ points. Decade by decade, players that old had about 5.8% of the games across the 2000s, 4.4% across the 2010s and 3.9% since 2020-21.

Fewer men now play most of those games. In the 2000s the old-timers’ games were shared among 204 different players aged 36 or older, and the ten who played the most had only about 15% of them. Since 2020-21 there have been fewer of them (99), and the ten who played the most, led by Burns, Ryan Suter, Ovechkin and Corey Perry, had about 29%. Chris Chelios, the busiest old-timer of the 2000s, played 494 of the 24,619 games that players 36 and older played that decade, about 2%. Burns has played 410 of the 10,920 since 2020-21, almost 4%.

The young man’s game ended in 2019

  • “Young man’s game” fit the years up to 2018-19. Since then, counted by games played, with each player counted once, or skaters by their minutes, the league has aged for seven straight seasons and is close to its oldest since the 1960s.
  • The change is the 30-somethings. Players 30 to 35 play about a third of the games, the most since 1963-64. Players 36 and over play 4.7% of them, less than in the 2000s.
  • Fewer games go to newcomers. First-season players got under 4% of all games played in three of the last four seasons, a level last seen in 1966-67, the last Original Six season. The young players who do play still score at about the league’s rate per game; their small dip since 2018-19 could be luck.

Nobody has come close to Howe

On Feb. 1, 2026, the oldest player in the NHL was 40.9. On the same date in 1980, four days before Detroit stood for him, Howe was 51.8. The league is the oldest it has been in decades. Its oldest man is still almost 11 years younger than Howe was that night.

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Tests written down
Not in advance (exploratory)
Results computed

Age on February 1 of every regular season 1917-18 to 2025-26 for every skater and goalie in NHL bios (birth date and games played), weighted by games and by roster count; ice-time weighting for skaters from 1997-98. Turning points were read off the full series, so each decade window is re-checked on odd and even seasons separately. Added on 2026-10-27 for the people in the story: teams, goals and points from the NHL season totals, and the longest team schedule from the team totals. A player “played every game” when his NHL games (all teams combined) reach that schedule and he was 36.0 or older on February 1. Teenagers are players under 20.0 on February 1. Team ages are approximate: they are games-weighted over players who played for only one team that season, which leaves out the 7.0% to 12.6% of games played by traded players in 2018-19 to 2025-26, so close ranks can flip. The young-player test compares skaters 22 and under with all skaters, per game, in each season from 2005-06 (plus 1979-80 and 1981-82); its 90% ranges (the body’s “luck range”) come from resampling each season’s players with replacement 2,000 times (some players drawn twice, some left out), and they are the luck benchmark for comparing seasons.

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Two ways of counting age: by games played (each player counted once for every game, the article’s main measure, also called games-weighted) and by roster (each player who appeared counted once). In every season since 1945-46 the roster count is younger, by 0.2 to 1.4 years. By roster, 2025-26 (27.82) is the oldest league since 1968-69 (27.87); by games played, it is the oldest since 2005-06 (28.53, 15 days older); 1969-70 (28.57) was also older, and no season from 1970-71 on was older except 2005-06. Small early seasons: through 1924-25 the league had fewer than 100 players a season (45 in 1917-18), so the early swings come down to a few people. Exact figures behind rounded body text: 1967-68 games-played age 28.88; 1981-82 teenagers 4.4% of games, 2025-26 1.0%; players 36 and over 6.2% of games in 1965-66, 7.2% in 1967-68, 10.6% in 1969-70, 3.0% in 1974-75, 1.2% in 1980-81, 1.6% in 1981-82, under 1% in every season from 1982-83 to 1989-90 and 0.7% across the 1980s; they scored 4.7% of skater points in 2025-26; first-season players 3.4% of games in 2022-23, 3.9% in 2023-24, 3.5% in 2024-25 and 7.3% in 2016-17, with an average roster age of 22.4 in 2025-26; team ages, Pittsburgh 31.77 in 2024-25, Chicago 25.72 in 2025-26; the 2022-23 to 2025-26 lineup (all four seasons added together) at ages 24 to 29 is nearly flat, 7.5% to 8.6% of games at each age.

Every test we graded
TestResultVerdict
The league has aged since 2018-1927.19 to 28.49 by games; 26.76 to 27.82 by roster; seven straight rises by games (27.19, 27.41, 27.47, 27.71, 28.00, 28.20, 28.37, 28.49); last run that long ended 1998-99Holds

More tests below

Rows 2–6 of 23
TestResultVerdict
Record: average age, by games played28.49 (2025-26); last this old 28.53 (2005-06)Oldest since 2005-06
Record: average age, by roster (each player once)27.82 (2025-26); last this old 27.87 (1968-69)Oldest since 1968-69
Record: share of games by players 22 and under9.9% (2024-25); last this low 9.1% (1968-69)Lowest since 1968-69
Record: share of games by players 30 to 3532.0% (2025-26); last this high 32.4% (1963-64)Highest since 1963-64
Record: share of games by first-season players3.4% (2022-23); last this low 2.8% (1966-67)Lowest since 1966-67

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Rows 7–10 of 23
TestResultVerdict
Skaters 22 and under, 1981-82221 skaters; share of games 28.4% (90% range 25.1 to 31.6); points per game vs league 1.02 (0.95 to 1.10)Descriptive
Skaters 22 and under, 2018-19194 skaters; share of games 16.8% (90% range 14.5 to 19.1); points per game vs league 1.06 (0.97 to 1.15)Descriptive
Skaters 22 and under, 2022-23158 skaters; share of games 10.7% (90% range 8.9 to 12.4); points per game vs league 0.95 (0.86 to 1.04)Descriptive
Skaters 22 and under, 2023-24153 skaters; share of games 11.1% (90% range 9.3 to 12.9); points per game vs league 0.98 (0.90 to 1.06)Descriptive

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Rows 11–15 of 23
TestResultVerdict
Skaters 22 and under, 2024-25145 skaters; share of games 9.9% (90% range 8.2 to 11.6); points per game vs league 1.05 (0.95 to 1.14)Descriptive
Skaters 22 and under, 2025-26163 skaters; share of games 11.8% (90% range 10.1 to 13.8); points per game vs league 0.99 (0.90 to 1.09)Descriptive
Old-timer games are more concentrated since 2020-21Top ten players 36+ had 14.5% of 36+ games in 2000-10 (204 players), 28.9% since 2020-21 (99 players)Descriptive
Holds when weighted by ice time (skaters)27.13 to 28.52Holds
Driven by players 36 and overWithout them, 1.1 of the 1.3-year rise remains; 30-35 share +11.0 pts vs 36+ +2.2No: mostly players 30 to 35

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Rows 16–20 of 23
TestResultVerdict
Players 36+ play 7-8% of games since 20005.8% in 2000-10, 4.4% in 2010-20, 3.9% since; peak season 6.7%No: lower
Decade levels hold in odd and even seasons2016-26 games age 27.83 (odd) vs 27.72 (even); 1980s 25.90 vs 25.87Holds
Forwards and defencemen both agedF 26.79 to 28.34; D 27.48 to 28.58; goalies 30.06 to 29.61Skaters yes, goalies no
Young players lost games because they score lessSkaters 22 and under, points per game vs all skaters: 1.06 (90% range 0.97 to 1.15, n 194) in 2018-19; 0.99 (0.90 to 1.09, n 163) in 2025-26; 1.02 in 1981-82No: the dip is within luck
Their share of games fell by more than luck16.8% (14.5 to 19.1) in 2018-19 vs 11.8% (10.1 to 13.8) in 2025-26Holds: ranges do not overlap

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Rows 21–23 of 23
TestResultVerdict
Players 36+ who played all 82 games, 2025-267 (Alex Killorn, Mikael Backlund, Ian Cole, Jonathan Toews, Claude Giroux, Alex Ovechkin, Brent Burns); 3 in 2018-19; 9 in 2023-24Holds: seven, by the rule above
Pittsburgh oldest team in four of the last eight seasonsOldest in 2018-19, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25; second in 2025-26 (30.23 vs Winnipeg 30.32)Holds, approximate
Players 36+ scored more in 1969-7010.4% of skater points in 1969-70, 1.6% in 2018-19, 4.7% in 2025-26Descriptive

Frequently asked questions

What is the average age of an NHL player?

In 2025-26 it was 28.49 counting each player by the games he played, and 27.82 counting every player once (age on February 1, 2026, skaters and goalies).

Is the NHL getting younger?

Not since 2018-19. Counting each player by the games he played, it got younger from 28.53 in 2005-06 to 27.19 in 2018-19, then aged every season to 28.49 in 2025-26.

When was the NHL oldest?

Since the 1920s, in 1966-67 to 1968-69 (28.77 to 28.88 by games played). Players 36 and over took 10.6% of games in 1969-70, the most ever. The league was youngest in the early 1980s (25.60 in 1981-82).

How many NHL games are played by players 36 and older?

4.7% in 2025-26 (40 players). It was 5.8% across the 2000s, 4.4% across the 2010s and under 1% across the 1980s.

Who is the oldest player in NHL history?

Gordie Howe, who was 51.8 on February 1, 1980, and played 80 games for Hartford that season. The oldest player of 2025-26 was Brent Burns, 40.9 on February 1, 2026, who played all 82 games for Colorado.

Who was the youngest NHL player in 2025-26?

Matthew Schaefer of the New York Islanders, 18.4 on February 1, 2026. He played all 82 games and won the Calder Trophy as the youngest winner in NHL history.

What is the oldest team in the NHL?

By a rough count (players who played for only one team, each counted by the games he played), Winnipeg at about 30.3 in 2025-26, just ahead of Pittsburgh (30.2). Pittsburgh was the oldest in four of the last eight seasons. Chicago was the youngest, at about 25.7.

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Sources and method

  1. NHL stats (NHL.com), every season since 1917-18
  2. NHL stats API: skater bios (birth date, games played), every season since 1917-18
  3. NHL stats API: goalie bios (birth date, games played), every season since 1917-18
  4. NHL stats API: skater season totals (teams, goals, points), every season since 1917-18
  5. NHL stats API: skater time on ice, 1997-98 on
  6. NHL.com: This date in NHL history, Feb. 5 (Howe’s ovation at the 1980 All-Star Game)
  7. The Associated Press, via WSLS: Avs defenseman Brent Burns becomes 2nd in NHL history to skate in 1,000 consecutive games (April 4, 2026)
  8. NHL.com, Christopher Detwiler: Burns honored for 1,000th consecutive NHL game (April 6, 2026)
  9. The Canadian Press, via TSN: Islanders D Schaefer wins Calder Trophy as NHL’s top rookie (May 13, 2026)
  10. The Hockey News, Andre Leal: Jonathan Toews agrees to sign with his hometown Winnipeg Jets (June 20, 2025)
  11. PPP Leafs (Cathy Squires): The NHL is getting younger and younger (September 9, 2024)
  12. World Hockey Association (1972-79): player signings and the 1979 merger
  13. 1967 NHL expansion (six teams to twelve)

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