Weird loop considering they have gotten significantly better year-over-year, with this season being nothing short of an amazing turnaround since the coaching change... oh, and the emergence of the kids.
Wings rookies combine are top 4 or 5 in the entire NHL in scoring among rookies this season. (they are achieving this with mostly dmen rookies, and the emergence of Kasper). This stat would have gone up if Mazur didn't get injured in his first NHL shift)
Not to mention a majority of their acclaimed prospects are still developing and looking like game breaking studs in the making (ASP especially).
But let's be uniformed and clueless and call it a "loop".
Detroit falls into the trap of... so is everyone else.
Tampa's core is in the 28-31 year old range right now, it'll be a few years before they really start to not be a playoff team (unless they soft retool and figure out a quick bounce back). They are quite a bit better than Detroit and will be for a few more years.
Toronto's core is in the 26-28 year old range. They aren't falling too far anytime soon (we all hope it blows up though). They are quite a bit better than Detroit and will be for a while.
Florida's core is in the 26-28 year old range too. They are well positioned to keep their place for a long time, they have a lot of young players too. Detroit ain't catching up to them, few teams will.
Ottawa's core is 22-27, they are (unfortunately :p) a playoff team right now. I'm not a believer in them but right now they are a couple steps ahead of Detroit with a big advantage on them in regards to cap space and roster flexibility (though I have no hope of that market making with it what they need to in order to be successful).
Montreal's is 20-25. They are currently ahead of Detroit in the standings, they have more reinforcements on the way than Detroit has and, like Detroit, are developing young players in the NHL (especially in their d).
Not to mention the Metro. NJD, NYR, and Carolina all look to be set up for the foreseeable future which means Detroit has to jump ahead of teams like Washington and Columbus for the wildcard, both of which are building their own young cores with considerable replacements on the way (Hutson and Leonard for Washington, Lindstrom for Columbus).
The question becomes, how much more do they have in them to leap especially when the teams around them are improving and getting better themselves or are already at a contender/ near contender level?
I don't doubt Detroit can be better but do they have the centre depth, do they have the drive for the next level? I don't think they do.
Seems like a loop to me.