from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

Nowadays, the primary byproduct of the NHL’s obsession with youth is how the annual free-agent crop is overrun by older, established veterans who have to prove themselves all over again.

You could build a Hall of Fame class around pending free agents Jaromir Jagr, Joe Thornton, Jarome Iginla, Patrick Marleau, Shane Doan and Andrei Markov, a sextet of players all past their 37th birthdays, trying to squeeze out another year or two in a league that’s marginalizing its senior citizens.

Doan, for instance, learned last week that the Arizona Coyotes no longer require his services after 22 years of loyalty. But, hey, thanks for coming – and thanks for staying during all those lean years when it would have been easy to bail out. Doan is pondering his future and weighing if the chance to play another season is worth the effort of uprooting his family.

By contrast, Jagr and Iginla have both demonstrated a willingness to move around as the years clicked off their career. In Iginla’s case, he may be obliged to move again.

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