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Uh oh, Detroit is excited about their young talent on the way

Tomas Jurco

Slovakia’s Tomas Jurco celebrates his goal against Latvia during the second period of a world junior hockey championships game in Calgary, Alberta, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Jeff McIntosh)

AP

The knock you always get on the Detroit Red Wings each year is they’re an old team. With guys like Nicklas Lidstrom, Todd Bertuzzi, and Tomas Holmstrom around it’s easy to see why that would happen. Older guys will slow down and see their skills fade away - not so much in Lidstrom’s case, but still.

Ansar Khan of Mlive.com hears from Red Wings assistant GM Jim Nill there’s youth on the way in the form of forwards Calle Jarnkrok, Teemu Pulkkinen and Tomas Jurco (pictured) and he’s very excited to see what they can do at the next level... Eventually.

“We’re very happy,’' Nill said. “They all have high-end offensive skills.

“You need 2-3 players to become better than you projected. That’s what (Henrik) Zetterberg and (Pavel) Datsyuk did. We’re fortunate Zetterberg and Datsyuk came along. We’re still looking for the next wave of talent.’'

Nill says all three will be invited to training camp in September and that they’ll see where they’re at. Add those three along with youngsters like Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyqvist and what once looked like an aging team has a ton of hope for the future.

You don’t want to say the Wings are reloading rather than rebuilding, but they’ve got a heck of a case to make to a guy like Ryan Suter this summer when it may come time to sway his opinion on playing for Detroit rather than against them.