The calendar tells us we have 30 days of winter left. That’s 30 days of gray and gloom, broken up by occasional snow, ice and the scare another polar vortex might bring.

Yep, there’s nothing hot or even warm about Detroit these days. Not the weather. And certainly not the sports teams, because the only thing more depressing than the actual calendar is the season calendar for each of Detroit’s four ice-cold professional teams.

The questions is: Who is going to end our misery? Which team will step up and be the next to hoist a championship trophy?

When my Free Press colleagues and I recently put our heads together to try to figure out which of our four pro sports teams would be the next to win a title, two things happened. We all suffered mild concussions (always avoid putting heads together) and the consensus choice was the Red Wings.

Four of six Freep writers agreed the Wings would be our city’s next champions.

Wings beat writer Helene St. James noted Dylan Larkin being at the front of a solid rebuilding core, with another high-end draft pick expected this summer.

More on Wings:Dylan Larkin remains Wings' brightest star in dark season

Columnist Jeff Seidel said if the prospects develop and contribute and the team reaches the playoffs, any team can get hot and win it all.

Pistons beat writer Vince Ellis noted the unpredictability of the NHL and baseball playoffs and gave the Wings the nod over the Tigers.

I noted the Wings’ recent championship pedigree, the rebuild that’s underway, and the possible return of Steve Yzerman to the franchise as reasons for why the Wings might bring home the hardware within five years.

Lions beat writer Dave Birkett said the Tigers have more hope of winning a World Series through a complete tear down, good drafting and timely free-agent signings.

More:Tigers' rebuild going in right direction, but no end is in sight

Tigers beat writer Anthony Fenech called it a four-way tie for last while noting the depressing nature of the exercise — and he’s in Florida right now.

Readers agreed with the four of us. Early online voting at Freep.com also had the Wings winning in a landslide.

Access to poll for mobile users.

But before I get back to the Wings, I would like to give the NFL a standing ovation. Only one of our writers (you’ll never guess who) ranked the Lions as the sole fourth-place team.

Also, early online voting had the Lions running second to the Wings.

The Lions. The team that hasn’t won a playoff game in more than 9,900 days, hasn’t won a division title since 1993, has never been to the Super Bowl and whose most recent championship can pretty much only be remembered by septuagenarians.

Yep, the Lions. The team that just had a train wreck of a season and could go through a house cleaning if things go off the rails in 2019. The fact I'm the only one who ranked them dead last shows what a masterful job the NFL has done to create a system that instills hope in its fans every year. Bravo!

In general, I agree the NFL offers the best chance at a rapid turnaround. But I ranked the Wings, Pistons and Tigers ahead of the Lions because they've all had recent runs of excellence. They’ve all played in or won the championship series since 2004 and they’ve all won a division title since 2008.

It’s true that those three teams did so under different ownership. Chris Ilitch hasn’t been at the helm very long for the Wings and Tigers, and Tom Gores has miles to go before he can be spoken of in the same breath as Bill Davidson. Conversely, it’s the constancy of the Ford family’s ownership that’s been a big part of the Lions’ problem.

I like that the Pistons have a proven head coach in Dwane Casey with an unquestioned star and leader in Blake Griffin. And with LeBron James out of the picture in the Eastern Conference, the Pistons don’t feel that far away from giving Griffin a better supporting cast. Don’t forget, the Goin' to Work title team of 2004 was mostly a cast of nobodies before they got to Detroit and Larry Brown got the most out them.

It’s almost impossible to predict what the Tigers are going to be and when they’re going to be it. The rebuild in baseball is the worst of any league. You basically root for your star players to do really well just so they can be sold off. Instead of a good record, what would truly mark success for the Tigers in the next few seasons would be the ability to trade stars like Jordan Zimmermann and Miguel Cabrera.

But the Wings are different. They’re a young team that has shown resilience this season and everything about that franchise exists to remind its players and its employees of its recent and historic championship pedigree. If Yzerman returns, hopefully by this summer, to serve as general manager or some equivalent, that would be the piece that would put the Wings over the top.

Now, can someone remind me how many more days we have until spring?

Contact Carlos Monarrez at cmonarrez@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.