Chicago Blackhawks-Detroit Redwings: Who Has a Brighter Future?

When it comes to rivalries in hockey, the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings have one of the biggest. This past season we saw the Red Wings do what they do best, while the Blackhawks gave them a run, finishing in second place in the Central Division.

As the 2009-2010 season is approaching us and both teams have made some changes, there is always a question of who will be better?

Both Chicago and Detroit have a positive future ahead, but who has an edge in the long run?

Offense

The offensive core of both teams are excellent and they will both be explosive next season. The Blackhawks are certainly a younger team, but the experience of Detroit is a lot to handle as we saw in the Conference Finals last season.

Chicago now has an offensive lineup that will make other teams play a lot differently when playing against them. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are two of the best young guns in the game, combining for 59 goals and 139 points last season.

Of course, the Red Wings can counter with the feared duo of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg who brought a little more offense to the table totaling 63 goals and 170 points together in the 08-09 season.

Although Detroit has an edge over Chicago when we compare Datsyuk and Zetterberg to Kane and Toews, the two Blackhawk forwards together are 17 years younger than the two Red Wing forwards and have not hit their primes yet. Regardless, all four players still have a lot left in their tanks.

Detroit has not done much this offseason except lose players. Most notably, Marian Hossa is now a Blackhawk. Hossa will make an immediate impact in Chicago's young lineup as he will most likely play with Kane, Toews, or Sharp. With Hossa gone, Detroit will look to Jiri Hudler and Johan Franzen to step up.

Franzen is a big guy at 6'2", 210 pounds, and was a force on the ice scoring 34 goals last season. Hudler is coming off his best season yet scoring over 20 goals for the first time while adding 34 assists for 57 points.

On the other hand, Chicago has Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg.

Sharp is almost the same type of player as Franzen, except a little less physical. Sharp is coming of an injury-ruined season where he only played 61 games, but still scored 26 goals and had 44 points.

Kris Versteeg is also a player who makes defensemen stay more aware when they are on the ice with him because his speed and agility could cost the opposing teams. Just like Kane and Toews, Sharp and Versteeg together are younger than Hudler and Franzen, but by just 4 years.

Underdogs

Alongside all the big name players both teams have, Detroit and Chicago also both have incredible players that are not recognized as they should be.

Andrew Ladd, Dave Bolland, Dustin Byfuglien, and Troy Brouwer are all coming off their best NHL seasons and were not mentioned much during Chicago's success despite playing a huge role.

Ladd and Bolland are both capable of being top six forwards and are both great two-way forwards. Bolland (+19) and Ladd (+26) have a great defensive sense for the game and combine for a +45 rating last year.

Brouwer and Byfuglien are solid forwards who contributed to Chicago's success last year as well. Both players are grinders that put points up on the board. The tenacity of Brouwer in the playoff last year was exciting to watch. All four of these players are under the age of 25.

Detroit has great young players as well, such as Daniel Cleary, Valterri Filppula, and Darren Helm. Cleary isn't mentioned much but is at the peak of his career right now averaging 41 points over the last three seasons. Filppula is another Red Wing coming off his best NHL season with 40 points and can be an offensive threat as he showed us in the playoffs racking up 16 points in 23 games.

The third player, Darren Helm, is a quality player that every team should love to have in their lineup. He might not spark as much offense as his teammates, but his physical play in all three zones energizes the crowd and his team. Helm is 22 years old and played in 39 games last year including playoffs and had 6 points. Helm also picked up 155 hits, of those, 118 came in 23 playoff games.

Other players to consider on Chicago are Adam Burish, who plays the same style as Helm, Ben Eager, the tough guy on the Hawks, and Tomas Kopecky who will give Chicago a spark.

As for Detroit, there is Tomas Holmstrom, one of the strongest and best guys in front of the net in the NHL, Ville Leino who almost averaged a point a game last season with nine points in 13 games, Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper who both appear to be slowing down.

Defense

Detroit's defense is arguably the best in the NHL with Lidstrom, Raflaski, and Kronwall. All three provide terrific offense along with defense combining for 169 points last season from the blue line.

Youngsters such as Brett Lebda, Jonathan Ericsson, and Justin Abdelkader are the future of Detroit's defensive core. As for Brad Stuart, his play in the cup finals deserves his name to be left off this list, for now.

Chicago also has one of the best defensive cores in the NHL with Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, and Brian Campbell. Seabrook provides excellent play in his own zone and is recognized as one of the top 10 best defensive defensemen in the NHL. Another big part of Seabrooks game is hitting. He led Chicago with 224 hits last season. His 224 hits finished 11th best in the league.

Duncan Keith led the Hawks for the second season in a row with the best +/-, +33, but the 25-year-old also put up 44 points and is great in the defensive zone. Keith is one of the best well-rounded defensemen in the NHL. Campbell's game lacks in the defense department as we saw at times last year, but his speed compared to other defensemen and scoring ability could go unmatched.

Cam Barkerwho re-signed with the Hawks a couple days ago is another good two-way defensemen who put up 40 points last year.

Goaltending is an issue for both teams this upcoming season because Huet and Osgood are not reliable all the time. When I say this, I speak mostly of Cristobal Huet who has been very inconsistent in his career. He had a 14-20-11 record with Los Angeles in two years.

The next four years with Montreal and Washington, Huet has a record of 69-31-13 and finished his season in Chicago last year with a 20-15-4 record. Huet has certainly gone up and down, but the Hawks, unlike Detroit, have numerous talent in the goaltending department in the minors and below.

Conclusion

So when it all comes down to it, what team looks like they will have a better next several years?

Considering Chicago has just as much (maybe a little less) talent than Detroit, but is far younger with an average age of 25.8 (the NHL's youngest), I would side with Chicago.

Detroit was the third oldest team last year with an average age of 29.5. Chicago's squad of young players will continue to grow together and get better every year depending on how GM Dale Tallon shapes the team.

Detroit will be good for another five years and maybe more. But in the long run, when they lose players like Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Raflaski, Draper, and Maltby to retirement, Detroit will be lacking.

Who will step up as leaders and provide the scoring like all these guys can do? When it comes time for all of them to retire, players like Kane, Toews, Versteeg, Byfuglien, Seabrook, Barker, Keith, Bolland, Ladd, etc. will all be hitting their prime time numbers.

The future looks better for Chicago. Sorry Detroit fans!