I was reading an article the other day about the apparent decline of Alex Ovechkin, and if we've already seen the best of him. I think the answer to that question is yes, if you consider the "best" being his days a high octane scorer. And since this is the kind of pointless question blogs truly exist for...
Most fans and commentators peg the "prime" years of a guy's career in hockey being the late 20s, and maybe circa 30 for goalies. I don't think that is accurate if you're talking about explosive offense. Just talking a random sample of some big stars, with the ages of career highs in goals and points;
-Gretzky, 20, 24
-Lemeiux, 23, 23
-Roenick, 21, 22
-Modano, 29, 26
-Selanne, 22, 22
-Hull, 26, 26
-Bure, 21, 21
-Jagr, 23, 23
-Yzerman, 23, 23
-Bondra, 27, 25
-Lindros, 22, 22
-LeClair, 26, 26
-Tkachuk, 24, 23
-Recchi, 24, 24
-Sakic, 31, 26
-Iginla, 24, 31
-Ovechkin, 22, 22?
It's an imperfect and sloppy analysis, as many players still put up similar numbers in successive years, but the pattern is clear; the most explosive offensive years comes from players in their early 20s. They may well be better overall players later in their career, but they basically never reach back and top their previous production.
This is something to keep in mind when projecting the futures of guys like Ovechkin and Stamkos. Ovechkin, the force of nature who scored 65 goals, is probably not coming back, but it won't prevent him from being a top scorer for years to come.
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