Trouble Looming For Detroit

Every year, a strong minority of pundits predict a letdown for the Detroit Red Wings. The success of the last twenty years has left the Red Wings with few top flight prospects, and a rapidly aging corps. The team is still driven by the engine of Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Henrik Zetterberg. However, all of them are over 30, and this is probably Lidstrom's last season in the league, though knowing him, he could easily pull a Chris Chelios and play well into his 40's. The recent retirements of Brian Rafalski, Chris Osgood, Kirk Maltby, and Kris Draper indicate the close of an era in Red Wings history. The problem is that the Red Wings have not begun to prepare for the next era. The team's defensive corps, featuring Jakub Kindl, Nicklas Lidstrom, Ian White, Brad Stuart, Niklas Kronwall, and Jonathan Ericsson, is still solid. The question, however, is how solid that corps will be down the road. Lidstrom will be gone in a year or two, and Stuart and Kronwall are both already over 30. Just today Kronwall signed a 7-year extension that will keep him in Detroit until he's 38. His cap hit will be about 4.6 million dollars, which would be a fair price if it weren't going to follow him until he's 38.

At forward though, the Red Wings seem much shakier. Firstly, they're not deep to start with. Johan Franzen, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg are probably the only legitimate top six forwards on the team, though you could count Jiri Hudler in there depending on how you view him. Those three players are all over 30, and the youth that has come onto the team in the last three years does not look like it's going to be able to take over the offensive reigns. Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, and Drew Miller, while young, homegrown prospects, certainly don't seem capable of rising above the third line. Naturally, that raises some concerns. Is Valteri Filpula really a second pivot? How much longer does Todd Bertuzzi have? One year? Two? The Red Wings might be looking on some dark days ahead. Now don't get me wrong, as long as Ken Holland and Mike Babcock are there, the team will be competitive. Rather, it's just a matter of when they start playing at a level where they will receive draft picks that actually matter.