The Detroit Red Wings had a pretty great 2008-09 season, winning the Central Division and the Western Conference Finals before being ousted by Stanley Cup winners the Penguins. In the offseason, the Wings lost Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson, Tomas Kopecky and Jiri Hudler, and replaced them with Jason Williams, Todd Bertuzzi and Patrick Eaves, making the 2009-10 season uncertain. The new arrivals aren’t really expected to fill the gap though. Rather, the Wings are counting on youngsters like Ville Leino, Justin Abdelkader, Valtteri Filppula and Darren Helm to step up. Plus, the team still has plenty of proven scorers, like Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Daniel Cleary and Nicklas Lidstrom. All in all, the Red Wings are still an elite team that is predicted to reach the playoffs for the 19th season in a row, and fans are already clamoring for tickets to Joe Louis Arena to watch them do it.

The NHL's long-awaited return to the ice in 2005-06 was a triumphant one for the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings dominated the regular season, finishing with 58 wins to only 16 regulation-time losses and 8 overtime losses, for a total of 124 points. That placed them not only at the top of the Central Division, and of the Western Conference, but also earned them the Presidents' Trophy for the year's best record in the entire National Hockey League.