As part of our season preview, I've reached out to my broadcasting cohorts from our Central Division rivals to get their insight to how things are shaping up in the division. Starting in order of finish from last season, we open with the defending Division Champs, the Detroit Red Wings from their radio voice Ken Kal.

There's a few new faces in the Red Wings organization this season both on and off the ice. Gone are Kris Draper, Bryan Rafalski and Chris Osgood. They retired during the off season.

Ian White and Mike Commodore are new additions on the back end. White is a right handed shooting defenseman and will likely take the place of Brian Rafaski. He will be teamed up with veteran Nicklas Lidstrom and will play the right point on the power play.
Commodore is a big defenseman that gives Detroit some size.

Mike Babcock has two new assistant coaches this season. Bill Peters spent the past three seasons with the Rockfors IceHogs and Jeff Blashill who spent last season as the head coach of the Western Michigan Broncos will join Babcock behind the bench.

One of the goals for the Red Wings this season is to cut down on the goals against and to play tighter "D" infront of Jimmy Howard and Ty Conklin.

Up front the Red Wings have two of the best 2-way players in the NHL in Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Both players are used in all situations and are very dangerous.

Johan Franzen (AKA The Mule) can score from anywhere on the ice, Todd Bertuzzi and Tomas Holmstrom are big bodies and make their presence known infront of the net.

Dan Cleary and Jiri Hudler can score. Valtteri Filppula is a playmaker who is creative with the puck and Darren Helm continues to impress everyone with his speed and is really improving with his touch around the net. Helm, Drew Miller and Patrick Eaves are grinders and very effective on the penalty kill. Justin Abdelkader is a hard worker who adds muscle to the team with his hard nose play.
Detroit signed Fabian Brunnstrom to a two-way deal on October 3rd. Brunnstrom played for Dallas in the past. He scored a hat trick in his first pro game with the Stars. Cory Emmerton who played most of last season in Grand Rapids will get a chance to show his game to the fans this season.

The Red Wings have depth on the blueline with 7-time Norris trophy winner Nicklas Lidstrom, Ian White, Nicklas Kronwall and Brad Stuart and Jonathan Eriksson. Jakub Kindl is ready for "the show" after developing his game in the minors. Detroit has not missed the playoffs since Nicklas Lidstrom has been with the team.

The Red Wings have qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs in 20 straight seasons plus they've won 4 Stanley Cups (97-98-02-08) during that span. Winning the Central Division title won't be easy this season. This could be the best division in hockey. Detroit, Chicago, Nashville, St. Louis and Columbus are all improved. It's very possible that 4 teams could qualify for the playoffs from the Central!
Let the games begin!