Pavel Datsyuk

As one of the greatest teams in the history of the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings have had many great players come and go.

These players are not just some of the best in Red Wings history, but many of them are the best in NHL history.

As a note to readers, while players such as Brett Hull and Dominik Hasek were great players, they only spent a short time with the Red Wings. As a requirement, players will have to meet a five-year minimum to make the list.

The NHL offseason is almost over—training camps are set to begin across the continent during the next few weeks and the first preseason games shortly thereafter. Hockey has returned...almost.

But while there is still time, I'd like to take this opportunity to hand out all of the major NHL awards before a game is ever played in the 2011-12 season. Some of these predictions are a little crazy, some of them are far more likely than others, but all are meant in good fun.

The Stanley Cup is not included, as it is not a major individual award.  

I went to College for broadcasting for a while with aspirations to be a hockey play-by-play guy someday.  Not necessarily at the Pro level—after all, my professors always used to joke that I had the looks for radio—but College games on the weekends would have made me happy.

Mutually beneficial one for one trades are becoming a rarity in pro sports. Nowadays the asking price for star players is usually a package of draft picks, mid- or top-tier prospects, and perhaps one or a few NHL-caliber players if the star in question warrants them.

With two points in the balance and 65 minutes of dead even hockey in the books, hockey's purest form of one on one unfolds for the entire arena to witness. The shootout, which was brought into the league following the lockout of the 04-05 season, pits each team's top shooters against the netminder and has created some of the most entertaining moments of the last few years.

When I think checking forward, two things come to my mind.

First, is a player who is responsible for shutting down the opponents’ top player. Second is a player who is responsible defensively, knows when to throw the game changing hits, is not afraid to block shots and can create turnovers.

When it comes to uniforms, hockey is different than the other three major sports. Unlike basketball and football, the front of the jersey has only a logo instead of a number taking up most of the space (well...most of the time). Unlike baseball, each hockey team has a white jersey and a colored jersey instead of a white jersey and a gray jersey.

Every September die-hard hockey fans look forward to drafting season for fantasy hockey. We get so excited to stack our teams and then we realize that after the first round almost every player you imagined would be on your team is gone.

So here it is, the Ultimate (Or should it be called impossible?) Fantasy team, line by line. Most of the entries will be obvious until we get a bit deeper, but hey, we can still have fun with this can't we?

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The concept of this year's Red Wings sweeping the Coyotes goes unmeasured when compared to their championship teams of years past.  This is only the first round matchup of the playoffs to end in a sweep. 

The Detroit Red Wings entered these playoffs looking shaky.  At one point in the season, they were right behind Vancouver in the race for the top seed.  They then finished the season by losing 10 of their final 23 games.  That record not only kept them from that top spot, but it also allowed San Jose to overtake them for the second seed.