Are we still talking about age...really?!

[scottdware 0]

So, I spend a good amount of time most days reading about the Wings, and different blogs, articles that people write about them. Year after year, it seems people constantly gripe about the age of our roster. Although, maybe its just me...anyway, I find it interesting that this constantly comes up. "We need to get younger...," "Why do we still have X on the roster, etc." Sure, we have 7 players at or above 35 years of age (Lidstrom I don't even consider to be "old," and I'm sure most people will agree with me). But the other 16 players on our roster are 32 and lower, with a lot of them being 25-30.

Then, I look at other teams' rosters. Sure, they might have an average age of 25 or so, but there's no other organization that is as complete as ours. Maybe people just love to hate on the Wings, or something? I know last year we were severely depleted as far as manpower goes, but look at what we did when we had all our guys healthy - hottest team in the NHL! We have a lot of depth, more so than what a lot of other teams have, that's for sure. And I still am not sold of players the age of 30-32 or so, being "old." I mean, if you can still play at a high level, who cares what your age is, as long as you're productive and producing and not holding the team/younger guys' development back.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, just needed to get that out. I for one am really excited about this season, and really believe that we'll be atop the Central Division again, and battling for the Cup next May/June! Thoughts?

[CenterIce 83]

So, I spend a good amount of time most days reading about the Wings, and different blogs, articles that people write about them. Year after year, it seems people constantly gripe about the age of our roster. Although, maybe its just me...anyway, I find it interesting that this constantly comes up. "We need to get younger...," "Why do we still have X on the roster, etc." Sure, we have 7 players at or above 35 years of age (Lidstrom I don't even consider to be "old," and I'm sure most people will agree with me). But the other 16 players on our roster are 32 and lower, with a lot of them being 25-30.

Then, I look at other teams' rosters. Sure, they might have an average age of 25 or so, but there's no other organization that is as complete as ours. Maybe people just love to hate on the Wings, or something? I know last year we were severely depleted as far as manpower goes, but look at what we did when we had all our guys healthy - hottest team in the NHL! We have a lot of depth, more so than what a lot of other teams have, that's for sure. And I still am not sold of players the age of 30-32 or so, being "old." I mean, if you can still play at a high level, who cares what your age is, as long as you're productive and producing and not holding the team/younger guys' development back.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, just needed to get that out. I for one am really excited about this season, and really believe that we'll be atop the Central Division again, and battling for the Cup next May/June! Thoughts?

National and other cities media need some way of knocking off the Wings. This has been the easy way out for them. They don't pay enough attention to the Wings to see that they continuously keep retooling. How else do you make the playoffs for about the last two decades.

[hooon 1,089]

National and other cities media need some way of knocking off the Wings. This has been the easy way out for them. They don't pay enough attention to the Wings to see that they continuously keep retooling. How else do you make the playoffs for about the last two decades.

Agreed. Just as people will predict the Sharks to win the cup every year, people will predict the wings are too old and will slow down. I think their theory is that eventually they will be right.

It does get a little annoying reading the same thing, especially when its not even true. The Wings essentially never start a young prospect, most players only get their first time with the Wings in their early 20s, given plenty of time to develop as much as possible. Most other teams do not have this luxury, and are required to start their players at an earlier age, making the average-age stat skewed against the Wings as being old.

People argue that our injuries last season were a result of the team's age, yet nearly all of our "old" players were the few that were healthy all season. It was mostly our younger guys who were injured.

Let them talk, they say the same thing every year, and have been wrong every year.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

The cool thing about getting older is that you get grayer, your skin wrinkles, and your teeth start rotting. Really sweet stuff!

[egroen 384]

The cool thing about getting older is that you get grayer, your skin wrinkles, and your teeth start rotting. Really sweet stuff!

Luckily your nose and ears never stop growing!

Wings have been the oldest team in the league consistently for almost 15 years now.

They have also been by far the most successful team of the past 15 years.

Imagine how great they could have been if they had no 30+ year-olds all these years!