With the 2020 NHL playoffs wrapping up this week, it’s time for our annual review of the average ages of each team to make the postseason. This year’s review is expanded to cover all 24 teams that made this year’s postseason.
The following graphic is the age plot for all players of each of the 24 teams that made it to the postseason this year. The Columbus Blue Jackets had the youngest average age (26.58) to make the playoffs, while the New York Islanders had the oldest average age (29.78) to make it to the postseason.
Graphic: John Barr
The Capitals had an average age of 29.42 years old, the second oldest average age of all playoff teams. The team average was increased from the average age at the start of the season (27.90) by the addition of Ilya Kovalchuk (37) and the departure of Brendan Leipsic (26).
It should be noted that Dallas (29.07) had the third oldest team, and they made it to the Stanley Cup Final. Tampa Bay, the other Cup finalist, had the sixth youngest team (27.72) to make the playoffs.
The average age of a player in the NHL at the start of the 2019-20 season was 27.3 years old.
Looking ahead to next season, the Capitals will likely lose Ilya Kovalchuk (37) Radko Gudas (30) and Braden Holtby (31) to free agency, which will greatly reduce the team’s average age. In addition, defenseman Martin Fehervary (20) will likely make the opening night roster, which will also greatly reduce the team’s average age from opening night last October.
The final number for opening will obviously rely heavily on trade and free agent acquisitions and the number of prospects who make the opening night roster.
For further review and comparison, here are our Capitals reports from previous seasons:
- 2019-2020 “Capitals Tale Of The Tape” can be found here.
- 2018-2019 “Capitals Tale Of The Tape” can be found here.
- 2017-2018 “Capitals Tale Of The Tape” can be found here.
- 2016-2017 “Capitals Tale Of The Tape” can be found here.
- 2015-2016 “Capitals Tale Of The Tape” can be found here.
By Jon Sorensen
I am ok with it. We will have a solid team for the next 4 years.
A solid team is good. But that does not make them a cup contender, playoffs yes cup no. With a p.o. % of 17.9% after they came back and 19.4% for the whole year this area must get better and the additional scoring must come from other players to make this team better. Now the pm was 6th at 82.6% which isn’t bad. For this team to be ranked as the #17 p.o. in the league is a disgrace and shows the lack of ability of the coach to come up with new schemes. This is one area that this team must improve in order to be more than a solid team. One possible solution is to have more secondary scoring. Backstrom needs to take more shots as foes Kuzi and Vrana and Wilson and someone on the 3rd and 4th lines has to score more than 3 goals besides Eller.