The Detroit Red Wings had a remarkable run that ended last season. Dating back to 1989-90, which was two seasons before the Ottawa Senators ever took to the ice, the Wings were a playoff fixture every time around.

Detroit now might be feeling the effects of that success, and not having a boatload of early draft picks to fill their coffers. They are also feeling the salary cap crunch, even after Johan Franzen and his almost $4M cap hit get moved to LTIR.

The Wings also have been among the quietest teams during the off-season, signing veteran Trevor Daley while most likely saying good-bye to Drew Miller. The Wings are in the midst of a retool, but there is hope for the future as their AHL affiliate won the Calder Cup championship. However, their leading playoff scorer, Tomas Nosek, was the player selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft. It remains to be seen if any of those prospects (such as Martin Frk or Tyler Bertuzzi) are ready to make the jump this year.

The Red Wings are a tough team to figure out because they don't have a large group of players in their prime. Up front, Henrik Zetterberg is still a strong force but is starting his decline and Frans Nielsen had a disappointing season after signing a big ticket contract as the replacement for the departed Pavel Datsyuk. Defense is a problem, as they are aging rapidly with the likes of Nicklas Kronwall (36), Jonathan Ericsson (33), Daley (33) and Mike Green (31) all on the wrong side of 30. All can still be effective, but it didn't translate to success last season, and they couldn't be rescued by the duo of Jimmy Howard and Peter Mrazek, who both had off seasons.

The Wings need the next wave - Anthony Mantha, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou (unsigned RFA), have to seize control of the team offensively and take the torch from Zetterberg et.al.

For a team that didn't do much in the off-season, looking from within to improve enough to overtake the playoff incumbents might be too much to ask. Then again, you could also make the argument that so many players from the goal on out had brutal seasons that there is only one way to go. Time will tell if the playoff miss was a one-off, or if the Wings will require a deeper rebuild.

POTENTIAL LINEUP

FORWARD

Tatar - Zetterberg - Mantha
Nyquist - Nielsen - Larkin
Athanasiou - Sheahan - Helm
Abdelkader - Glendining - Witkowski

Bertuzzi/Frk/Svechnikov

DEFENSE

DeKeyser - Green
Daley - Jensen
Ouellet - Kronwall

Ericsson/Witkowski/Sproul

GOALIES

Howard
Mrazek
Coreau

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