Something I think is interesting in reference to Detroit:
32-34-26
33-29-34
23-24-27
29-24-29
32-29
27-24
30-26
29
28
Age of the Red Wings players organized by line/position. Still not a young team by any stretch, but would wager some of those numbers are lower than many people expect.
Italicized numbers have a positive +/-, bold numbers have 4 or more points.
The second line has been pretty underwhelming (Franzen-Flippula-Cleary). Even though they all got the bold there, they average only 5 points over 9 games per player and average a little worse than a -2, which isn't exactly a cup-contending performance for a scoring line. I would expect that line will change quickly in the next year or two with the latter two contracts both ending this year. Cleary has had a pretty strong playoffs (6 points and -1), but I wouldn't be surprised if Detroit lets Fill walk given that he's been poised to breakout for about 10 years now and Cleary probably needs a reduction in his role given his usual irrelevance. Franzen is what's going to hold Detroit back some in the current top 6 -- 4m a year is a joke cap hit, but given that he's already not being super productive it's pretty scary to see him signed until he's 40.
Still, Detroit has to feel good about most of the younger guys here. Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Kronwall aging will hurt sooner rather than later, but the rookie line (line 3, which still has an average age of almost 25...) has been pretty productive. While 3 in 9 isn't anything to be writing home about, Smith, Ericsson, and Kindl on D and Nyquist and Andersson up front are all scoring at that pace, so the younger guys are contributing pretty well in spite of limited ice time and a lack of playoff experience. Smith os kind of the question mark here since Detroit probably can't be good in the next few years unless he is, but he's at least having enough good moments to even out the awful ones right now. It's worth noting Detroit's 2nd best defenseman is probably Danny DeKeyser, who hasn't really played at all in the playoffs because of injury (and is 23 hismelf).
Given that Detroit's AHL team is a game away from the AHL conference finals and has some scoring types on it like Tatar(who I expected to see this year) and Jurco, this might actually kinda work out, especially since Detroit probably needs to replace Cleary and Fill on the second line between those two and the current third line. Detroit could definitely have a team next year that doesn't have anyone older than 30 but the three players wearing letters outside of the bottom line/pairing... and Franzens 8000 year contract.
my Caps Capsed another Game 7 I'm pretty happy with the 8 teams left... if the Leafs and Caps were still alive it'd be pretty much perfect but pretty content with any of the four Western teams, Ottawa, or the Rangers making a deep run, and Pittsburgh making the finals would be fine as long as they play Chicago because that would be an amazing series. It's weird because the lockout usually makes a lot of weird shit happen but the teams left (other than my home team, thanks inexplicable Ducks 2 seed) are all really amazing and are all either teams that have been great for a while or will be great for a while. Kind of a fun year with a couple of the old guard (San Jose, Detroit) mixed in with teams you'd expect will be contending for a long while.
