As the Red Wings’ first open, informal skate of the fall wound down Thursday in Detroit, defenseman Niklas Kronwall led a team of red-jerseyed players in two laps around the ice — the result of a losers-skate scrimmage.



Most days, the scene would have meant very little. Kronwall downplayed it afterward by saying he was simply the first man off the bench — and, to be fair, it’s not like skating a post-scrimmage lap is a sacred act.



But with just a week left until training camp, and less than a month until the NHL season begins in full, the image stood out for a simple reason: With Henrik Zetterberg’s future looking doubtful in Detroit, the mantle of leadership will increasingly fall onto the shoulders of players like Kronwall — the most senior remaining veteran of a Red Wings era gone by.



“We had so many guys here when I came here — a lot of it for us, or at least myself, you watched the other guys,”...