If you monitor the conversations in Detroit these days around the Red Wings, many of them are rather grim.



This is a team on pace for 82 points, 23rd in the league, even with the good fortune of five shootout wins. They are ahead of only Arizona in ROW – regulation and overtime wins – a vital tiebreaker at the end of the season.



They are one of the oldest teams in the league (average age, 28.5). And they have $51-million committed on the salary cap two seasons from now to mostly older players, a list that includes Henrik Zetterberg (who will then be 38), Frans Nielsen (34), Niklas Kronwall (37), Jonathan Ericsson (34), Justin Abdelkader (31), Jimmy Howard (34) and Darren Helm (31).



Those seven players on the wrong side of 30 scheduled to make a combined $40-million. In 2018-19. In a league that has been getting younger and younger.



It’s little wonder this is what the fan base is saying:



“I wouldn’t say the...