The NHL's Old-Timer All-Star Team for 2014-15
On Saturday, 42-year-old Martin Brodeur recorded his first win of the 2014-15 season in a relief appearance for the Blues against the New York Islanders. Whatever happens to the legendary goalie in St. Louis, he's already defied the odds by earning another NHL contract in his 40s.
That got us wondering as to which old-timers have been most exceptional in NHL play this season. Our answer to that question is this: the NHL Old-Timer All-Star team. To qualify, a player must be at least 35 years old as of this writing and still be playing at a high level. As with the NHL's annual awards, we've put together two All-Star teams and sorted the players by position.
Read on to see which players have been most successful so far this season at holding off Father Time.
First-Team Left Wing: Patrick Marleau
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Born: September 15, 1979 (35 years old)
Stats Line: 29 GP, 7 G, 18 A, 25 PTS, 19:03 TOI
In Brief: Marleau has been snake-bitten in the early going, scoring just seven times on 93 shots for a 7.5 shooting percentage; that's just barely half of his career average. Even so, he's scoring at close to a point-per-game pace and is one of a quartet of forwards (Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton are the others) that Sharks coach Todd McLellan is leaning on heavily. No San Jose forward has seen tougher competition this season.
First-Team Centre: Pavel Datsyuk
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Born: July 20, 1978 (36 years old)
Stats Line: 17 GP, 12 G, 10 A, 22 PTS, 18:33 TOI
In Brief: Even in a season marred by injury, Datsyuk manages to be an elite two-way threat despite being on the back nine of his career. The scoring totals are ridiculous, and while they'll doubtless drop off a bit when an inflated shooting percentage (26.7 percent) cools down, he's doing wonderful things for the Red Wings, who currently sit just two points back of first overall in the NHL.
First-Team Right Wing: Marian Hossa
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Born: January 12, 1979 (35 years old)
Stats Line: 27 GP, 5 G, 14 A, 19 PTS, 18:00 TOI
In Brief: One of the league's best defensive forwards, Hossa continues to do what he has been doing reliably for years now: win the battle in a tough-minutes role on Chicago's top line. Hossa has managed to contribute offensively, too, despite his struggles to score goals; he has just five goals on 84 shots, and if he were scoring at his career average rate, he would have 11 and be flirting with the point-per-game mark.
First-Team Defence: Brian Campbell
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Born: May 23, 1979 (35 years old)
Stats Line: 25GP, 1 G, 6 A, 7 PTS, 23:17 TOI
In Brief: Campbell has been without question Florida's top defenceman since arriving from Chicago in a salary-clearing trade. In 2014-15, he has taken rookie defender Aaron Ekblad under his wing on Florida's top pairing with exceptional results.
Ekblad is in the running for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year, but he might not be if not for Campbell; the duo has a 56.0 percent Corsi rating together, while Ekblad is sitting at just 41.5 percent in just over 100 minutes away from Campbell.
First-Team Defence: Andrei Markov
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Born: December 20, 1978 (35 years old)
Stats Line: 29 GP, 3 G, 10 A, 13 PTS, 24:32 TOI
In Brief: Markov continues to do a little bit of everything in Montreal, logging massive minutes in all situations and providing both offensive ability and a veteran partner for stellar young defender P.K. Subban. Markov has certainly benefited from his partnership with an elite defender like Subban, but Subban has also been at his best alongside Markov.
First-Team Goalie: Roberto Luongo
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Born: April 4, 1979 (35 years old)
Stats Line: 20 GP, 9-5-6, .925 SV%
In Brief: With the goalie soap opera in Vancouver finally coming to a conclusion last season, Luongo has been able to get back to doing what he does best—namely, stopping pucks. That the Panthers are contending for a playoff spot can largely be laid at the feet of the team's veteran No. 1, who with a .925 save percentage ranks easily within the top 10 among NHL starters.
Second Team
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Left Wing: Chris Kunitz, who was a first-team All-Star and received Hart Trophy votes in 2012-13, is still producing offence at the age of 35, with 20 points in 23 games. Unfortunately, it was announced last week that he's going to be out for some time with a broken foot, which is an ugly setback after a strong start.
Centre: Even with all the drama in San Jose, 35-year-old Joe Thornton just keeps plugging away and producing. His scoring (22 points in 29 games) is a little off his normal pace, but he's driving possession; as of this writing, he has a ridiculous plus-22.2 relative Corsi rating, meaning that the Sharks as a team land 22 more shot attempts in an hour of five-on-five play with Thornton than they do without him.
Right Wing: Martin St. Louis turned 39 over the summer, but he's still a major offensive weapon for the New York Rangers and was even briefly pushed into the centre position when injuries necessitated that one of the team's wingers take that slot. The undrafted forward who didn't break into the NHL full time until age 25 scored his 1000th career point just a few games ago.
Defence: The play of Mark Streit, who will turn 37 on Thursday, has been a rare bright spot in a difficult season for Philadelphia. Streit leads the Flyers blue line at 22:49 per game in ice time and has 15 points in 26 games.
Defence: Marek Zidlicky, who will turn 38 in February, narrowly edges out a pair of defensive defencemen (Florida's Willie Mitchell and Colorado's Jan Hejda) thanks to his offensive edge; since these are All-Star teams, it seems appropriate to reward a guy with 14 points in 27 games who is facing top opposition.
Goalie: The 36-year-old Niklas Backstrom is having a nice bounce-back year in Minnesota. The Wild backup has a 3-2-1 record and .917 save percentage over nine appearances.
Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work. Statistics are courtesy of NHL.com, BehindtheNet.ca, Hockey-Reference.com and Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com.
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