The NHL never waits. New blood, new champions, new hype. In a league lit by flash and youth, age is supposed to be an anchor—not a life raft to new glory. Yet, through the first weeks of the 2025-26 campaign, one man has smashed every grim prediction with defiance. Sidney Crosby, the 38-year-old icon with three Stanley Cups and plenty of miles racked up, has set Pittsburgh alight with an opening run that’s as dramatic as it is improbable.
Heading into the season, the Penguins were cast off as an afterthought, a rebuild waiting to happen. 16 games and 20 Sid the Kid points later, Pennsylvania's finest are somehow second in the Metropolitan Division, but the online betting sites remain unconvinced. Despite Crosby's heroics, the latest NHL betting at Bovada odds still list the Penguins as a mighty +800 outsider to win the Eastern Conference this term, the third-longest odds of anybody in the league.
But Crosby isn't the only NHL icon to age like fine wine. While his renaissance is the current flavor of the league, a few others have also managed to shine in their twilight years. Here's our pick of them.
Sidney Crosby back to scoring goals for the good guys! ?
— Bovada (@BovadaOfficial) February 22, 2025
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Wayne Gretzky
Start with the polestar: Wayne Gretzky. If you want drama, savor 1995-96, with the Great One straddling L.A. and St. Louis and still orchestrating plays with preternatural vision. At 34, the Great One had already done everything there was to do in the NHL, claiming five Stanley Cups and scoring goals for fun. Even so, that hunger remained, and the Canadian sensation still continued to shine on teams desperate for support.
Gretzky rang up 259 points across his final three seasons in Tinseltown, despite heading into the twilight of his career. A move to the Blues left a lot to be desired, but Gretzky would return to his very best with the Rangers, with his mind only sharpening, despite his legs slowing. He amassed a stunning 25-point scoring streak at Madison Square Garden, before a 90-point curtain call in his penultimate season at the age of 37.
No one has mapped the late-career topography the way Gretzky did, showcasing pure skill as an antidote to aging. In a league that recycles stars every spring, his closing chapters remain a master class in adaptation—anticipation replacing acceleration, cerebral poetry over brute force.
Jaromir Jagr
The numbers stagger. Jaromir Jagr, hair flowing, legs like tree trunks, played with physics and probability right into his mid-40s. After Russian exile, Jagr returned at 39, pumping in 54 points for the Flyers. Other players slow; Jagr simply grew more baroque.
His puck protection was folklore—a 220-pound sorcerer spinning defenders away, then unleashing a laser off the half-wall. Teammates half his age marveled. Jagr’s total? 1,921 points, second to Gretzky, each new milestone wrung from experience, will, and a genetic quirk that let him outlast science.
Mark Recchi
Grit and skill. That’s Mark Recchi—a man who didn’t just age with dignity but weaponized it. “The Recchin’ Ball” racked up 1,652 games and 577 goals across seven franchises. In his final five seasons, four topped 50 points, climaxing at 43 with a 14-point playoff run that helped deliver Boston’s first Cup since 1972.
Veteran mentoring? Certainly. But Recchi’s true signature was chameleonic hockey sense; he tailored his game to fill whatever hole a contender needed—primary scorer, net-front pest, or locker room sage. Young Bruins talk about him in hushed tones: the sage who pushed them over the summit.
Martin St. Louis
How does a player go undrafted, wait until 27 for a regular spot, and then become the embodiment of the clutch playoff phenom? Ask Martin St. Louis. From 35 to 39, he didn’t just maintain—he dominated, averaging over 80 points a season, including a 94-point eruption at age 36.
At 37, he won the Art Ross in a 48-game lockout sprint. Whether in Tampa—engineering the miraculous 2004 Cup run—or at Madison Square Garden—driving the Rangers to the 2014 Final—St. Louis’ edges, acceleration, and bottomless will rewrote every scouting report. Size, it turns out, is the most overrated stat in hockey.
The Blueline Miracles: Giordano, Gonchar, & McDonagh
Not all renaissances unfold up front. Mark Giordano’s is perhaps the ultimate outlier story: undrafted, toiling in the minors, unremarkable—until, suddenly, a Norris Trophy at 35 behind a 74-point shockwave in Calgary. Years 33 to 37? Fifty-plus points as standard issue. That’s evolution, not luck.
Sergei Gonchar quarterbacked elite power plays into his late 30s, notching 59 points at 34 and 47 at 36, using vision and heavy minutes to outmaneuver younger, faster rivals. He’s a statistical beacon for late-blooming defensemen. Then there’s Ryan McDonagh, once considered a spent force after his Rangers exile, suddenly anchoring Tampa Bay’s blue line amid Cup triumphs, logging brutal minutes, and stabilizing chaos as only a veteran can.
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