Brother the top 6 has 3 elite 1C's and the worst goal scorer had 36 goals last season. Most Stanley Cup winning teams have Stephenson/Novak level players as their 2C's... On top of that there are 3 number one caliber defensemen on the blue line... In net there's a Vezina and a Calder nominee.
Will be interested to see how you adjust this to actual peak age about 22.5->27, with peak centered around 24.
Good research and discussion on the topic here:
https://hockeyviz.com/static/pdf/ritsac19.pdf
Though peak performance doesn’t necessarily coincide with peak deployment, that’s more of a market inefficiency amongst ****ty teams/coaches, particularly with role players.
“Prime” is later for defensemen and goalies than it is for forwards. 26-30 is definitely not the prime of a forward’s career. That’s probably 22-26 or 23-27. For Dman you’re closer.