Barring some late-summer moves from Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas, his team is on track to be one of the NHL’s “most experienced” rosters once again.
Per eliteprospects.com, Pittsburgh currently has the second-oldest roster in the NHL with an average age of 29.9 years, just behind the Edmonton Oilers.
However, there may be some respite for the Penguins, whose average age of 30.8 years last season was one of the many reasons they missed out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a second straight season.
The Penguins will travel an estimated 31,372 miles in 2024-25, compared to 35,153 miles last season. That ranks second-lowest in the NHL, just ahead of the New Jersey Devils:
It also falls well short of the NHL average of 40,382 miles traveled. The Anaheim Ducks will spend the most time in the air this season with an estimated 50,943 miles to cover.
While the Penguins may spend less time in the air and crossing time zones this season, it’s worth noting that they often play more back-to-back games and take more road trips than most teams.
According to soundofhockey.com, Pittsburgh led the league with 23 road trips in 2023-24 while playing the tenth-most back-to-back games.
As a member of the geographically concentrated Metropolitan Division, it is far easier for the Penguins to take separate trips in a shorter timespan with fewer miles traveled. That is contrasted with Pacific Division teams, who tend to pack in more games in fewer road trips to limit their overall mileage.
So, all the advantages gained from spending less time in the air, including lost sleep and fatigue, are arguably balanced out by the abovementioned factors.
So should we expect the Penguins’ lighter air travel to translate to more on-ice success?
Not necessarily. There isn’t much evidence to suggest lighter travel schedules produce the winningest teams.
Just last season, the Edmonton Oilers endured one of the heaviest schedules in the league with an estimated 50,887 miles covered in the regular season. They went on to lose in the Stanley Cup Final to another perennial frequent flier, the Florida Panthers.
The Los Angeles Kings log heavy travel mileage every year, and all they produced was a mini-dynasty in the early 2010s. That included a grueling 2014 playoff run in which the Kings went to seven games in each of the first three rounds, one of which was against the Chicago Blackhawks, whose United Center is more than 1,700 miles from Los Angeles.
Still, it stands to reason that none of Sidney Crosby, Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin, who are all closer to 40 than 30, are complaining about the extra time on the ground.
So it remains to be seen how this will factor into the Penguins’ season. Given their average age and sagging performance in previous seasons, perhaps their lighter travel merely helps to level the playing field for them more than it stacks the deck in their favour.
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