| | Lengths of Hockey Players' Careers Through the Ages |
 | | Nowadays, the NHL has more teams than the NHL and WHA combined did during most of the 1970's (1974-75 and 1975-76 being the exceptions), and once again the demand for hockey players surpasses the supply, so we once again are seeing the return of players who have played for 20 or more seasons. |
 | | The average number of players who played a full season in their first NHL season in the first 11 years is about 7.8, whereas for the last 10 years it's only 4.4. |
 | | I decided to look at the 1999-00 season, which is recent enough that the results I get have a hope of being relevant today, but long enough ago that it's likely (but certainly not certain) that people who haven't played in the NHL since then won't be playing in the NHL in the future either. |
| www.sentex.net /~ajy/hockey/longcareer.html (2888 words) |