In a surprising move, it was announced courtesy of Darren Dreger of TSN that Curtis Glencross would retire. Glencross, who is only 32 years old, is seemingly retiring before his time is up. He was traded last season to the Capitals during their playoff run where he saw a varied amount of time.
It has been reported as well that he had received offers from multiple places in Europe including the KHL but wants to prioritize time with his family. He had a couple of PTO’s this preseason with the Colorado Avalanche and Toronto Maple Leafs, but he wasn’t able to stick with either.
An interesting point was brought up by James Mirtle, a writer for the Globe and Mail:
Glencross is clearly still an NHL level talent. Wonder if we get to point where older players devalued too much? pic.twitter.com/2u11IXKQQK
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) October 20, 2015
As you can see from the graph, Glencross isn’t a world beater by any means but is definitely serviceable in his last few years. James Mirtle brings up an interesting point about where the league is heading. Is the league getting too young? Are they pushing out players like Glencross in favor of younger options? It would seem like that is the current movement of today’s NHL. Many would take the unproven and bet on that, then take an already known commodity.
It is a lottery situation in which the team needs to make that bet with all the info provided to them. Are they making the right decision? That remains to be seen but for now it looks like Glencross is one of the early casualties.
