from Bruce McCurdy of the Edmonton Journal,
“When you watch the team celebrate with the Stanley Cup on the ice every year, there are lots of what I call ‘Greybeards.’ Experienced players. Are there some young players? Yeah. But that’s why we put players in the American Hockey League.
“When you’ve got Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Darnell Nurse, Mike Smith and Adam Larsson, our expectations and aspirations are to compete for the Stanley Cup. We’ve got some wonderful players and they’re just coming into the prime of their careers. Certainly, I can’t support them with a bunch of 20- and 21-year-olds.
“We want to have some 21, 22-year-olds on our team because they’re going to grow into players that are part of the solution. But you also need those veteran players that have been there before. They’ve got experience. You need veterans to go on playoff runs.”
So said Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland this past May 26, as he surveyed the aftermath of his team’s quick elimination from the Stanley Cup playoffs after the minimum four games.
Holland would soon put his money where his mouth was as he attempted to upgrade his team during the off-season, and not for the first time either during his third summer at the helm. The 2021-22 version of his team sports no fewer than 9 players age 30 or higher, where we will draw our arbitrary line defining “Greybeards”. Your mileage may vary.
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