Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook (7) celebrates with defenseman Duncan Keith (2) his goal scored against the Anaheim Ducks in game seven of the Western Conference Final of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Honda Center; May 30, 2015; Anaheim, CA, USA; Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

View photos Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook (7) celebrates with defenseman Duncan Keith (2) his goal scored against the Anaheim Ducks in game seven of the Western Conference Final of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Honda Center; May 30, 2015; Anaheim, CA, USA; Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports More

Stan Bowman is a very smart hockey man. He values the right things (on the ice anyway, haha) and has had a lot of success not only in terms of icing consistently great NHL teams, but also in drafting and developing talent to replace the high-quality NHLers he necessarily has to lose every few years.

You could put together a decent enough NHL team just from the former Chicago players that have had to be let go after a Cup win to get the current team under the cap. Andrew Ladd, Patrick Sharp, Dustin Byfuglien, Johnny Oduya, Brandon Saad, Brad Richards, Nick Leddy, Brian Campbell, Dave Bolland, Antti Niemi, Ray Emery, and some I'm surely forgetting. The point is that this team goes through solid middle-of-the-lineup (or better) players like water, and almost always comes out the other side unscathed because the top-of-the-lineup players are so, so good.

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It doesn't hurt that they have two such “core” guys locked in on long-term, cap-circumventing deals that keep their cap hits down considerably, and help the team in the process, but that's just how it goes. Can't fault them for taking advantage of the system given to them.

But one has to wonder at what point that very understandable loyalty to a group of players who are by no means getting any younger (none of us are, after all) becomes untenable. Patrick Kane is signed until he's 34. Jonathan Toews and Corey Crawford until they're both 35. Duncan Keith until he's 39. Marian Hossa until he's 42.

And now add, “Brent Seabrook through his age-39 year,” as well. At $6.875 million a season.

This is a contract that cannot begin to make sense in the real world.

Full stop, it's a terrible idea to sign literally any player until they are 39, simply because even the elite players among the elite players of the world typically do not last that long. Most don't even come close. Since 2007, just 59 defensemen have even made it through to age 35, and that number significantly for each season thereafter. Only 22 have played at least 1,000 minutes at 36 or older. And just 13 at 37. And eight at 38.

When you get down to the end of it, only four defensemen have played at least 1,000 minutes as 39-year-olds in that time.

These numbers will probably go up this season, as a number of older defensemen are still in the league, but this gives you a pretty shocking baseline for how players age. Of the 175 defensemen to play at least 4,000 minutes in the league total since 2007-08, only 2.29 percent went on to play at 39. Therefore, Bowman is gambling that Seabrook falls into, let's say, the 95th percentile in terms of durability.

This is not meant to impugn Seabrook, of course. He is a good, or perhaps even great defenseman in this league and will be for at least a few years to come. But as we know with D-men in general, their ability to maintain a high level of play after the age of 34 or so — when Seabrook will still have four years left on his contract— can just explode at any given time. The body just gives out, if you will. And once it does, guys turn into Dennis Seidenberg pretty quickly: Once revered by fans, now reviled. And still, probably, overvalued by people who are supposed to be smart enough to properly value everyone at any given time.

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