While the Detroit Red Wings are taking a bit of a dip in our ranking for this year – from the top-five last year down to 15th now – the core of their pipeline remains mostly intact.

They have plenty of good, even many very good prospects, indicated by the fact that they had five players included in our top-100 affiliated skaters ranking. Even more impressively, in our top-15 affiliated goalie ranking, they had two netminders included among the first five names.

However, the Red Wings lack a true bluechip prospect – at least as far as skaters are concerned – with Simon Edvinsson losing his Calder eligibility. Add one of those, and they'd be a lot higher in this exercise once again.

Still, it's a deep pool with a lot of intriguing talent, many of them close to making an impact at the NHL level. Let's examine it closer.