Blackhawks' Keith: I want to play until I'm 45

Gordie Howe, Chris Chelios and Jaromir Jagr.

Of the tens of thousands of position players who have skated in the NHL, only those three have managed to stretch their careers past their 45th birthday.

Eleven years from now, Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith hopes to add his name to that short list.

"I want to play til I'm 45. I feel like I'm 22 right now. I do. Honestly," Keith said after Tuesday's practice at MB Ice Arena. "I'm 34, I feel great. I feel better than I did at times when I was 27, 28.

"Hockey's a team game. It's not one guy doing everything out there and you have to work together. I have a lot of fun and I feel good."

Keith was responding to a question about his ice time, which has stayed remarkably consistent at 24-27 minutes per game. This season, he's averaging 25:09, good for 14th in the NHL.

"There's a point in time where you have to be smart and not overwork," Keith said. "I find that's big for defensemen.

"You look at all the defensemen in the past that have come - like (Nicklas) Lidstrom and (Chris) Pronger - those guys weren't always skating 100 miles an hour every shift. It was just being smart and being in good position and skating hard when you had."

Keith has five years remaining on his 13-year deal. If he managed to play in every game until the end of the 2022-23 season, Keith would pass Stan Mikita for most games played by a Hawk - 1,405 to 1,396. Bobby Hull is second at 1,036.

While Keith may not be going "100 miles an hour every shift," he has certainly noticed how the game has changed. Fights are almost a thing of the past, and general managers are no longer afraid to draft and sign 5-foot-6, 150-pound buzzsaws who are suddenly wreaking havoc all over the league.

"You have guys that are on every line that are just so fast, so you have to work harder," Keith said. "Before - when you get caught out against another team's fourth line - it was kind of nice. You knew you weren't going to get hit because you're faster and quicker and you weren't going to fight them.

"But now, a lot of times they're the quickest guys on the team - the third- and fourth-line guys."

So can Keith play into his mid-40s? Coach Joel Quenneville isn't betting against him.

"I could see it. How old was Cheli?" Quenneville said of Chelios, who played until he was 48. "And Jagr's still going. …

"I don't think he'll be playing these kind of minutes, but I like his ambition."

They just kept going

The five oldest position players (non-goalies) in NHL history:

1. Gordie Howe: 52 years, 11 days

2. Chris Chelios: 48 years, 71 days

3. Jaromir Jagr: 45 years, 279 days*

4. Doug Harvey: 44 years, 100 days

5. Tim Horton: 44 years, 39 days

* active