Norm Ullman was not the premier scorer in the National Hockey League, but when he had the puck, few could control it better than he could.  If there was a better forechecker in his day, we don’t know who it was.

Marcel Pronovost was in the Detroit Red Wings for a couple of years, and after tearing it up in the USHL, he was called up for the 1950 Playoffs.  Pronovost helped the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup, and he won Hockey's Holy Grail before he ever had a regular season game.

Vyacheslav Kozlov arrived in the NHL as an early Third Round Pick in 1990, and after bouncing back and forth between the minors and the parent club, Kozlov was ready to stay in the 1993-94 Season with a 73 Point Season.

We are going so far back on this one that when Ebbie Goodfellow signed with Detroit, the team was called the Cougars.

Sergei Fedorov made the CSKA Moscow team at age 16, and as Soviet players started to defect, NHL teams began drafting players from the Iron Curtain.  The Red Wings were one such squad, selecting Fedorov in the Fourth Round in 1989.  A year later, Fedorov defected and was in the premier league of Hockey.

Sid Abel began his NHL career way back in 1938 with the Detroit Red Wings, a team that “Old Bootnose” would become synonymous with.

In sports, you often hear about the "glue guy," which refers to the character player who holds the team together.  That player is not necessarily a star, but in hockey, forward Alex Delvecchio is what we have.

When the Detroit Red Wings traded for Chris Chelios at the 1999 Trade Deadline, they could not have foreseen that they would get a decade of play from the 37-year-old.

Chris Osgood proved to be a decent Goalie early in his career, helping the Red Wings reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 1995, although he was the backup to Mike Vernon. This changed the year after, when he led the league in Wins (39) in 1995-96, was named a Second Team All-Star, and shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with Vernon.  It was bittersweet the year after, as the Red Wings ended their Stanley Cup Finals drought, but Vernon was the player in the pipes throughout the bulk of the postseason.

Think about this for a second.

The Detroit Red Wings signed Red Kelly in 1947, and the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had passed on him, hung their head in shame for that decision for 13 years.

The importance of Ted Lindsay extends far beyond what he did on the ice, but we will get there later.

The Detroit Red Wings were an awful team in the years leading up to the selection of Steve Yzerman Fourth Overall in 1983.  We don't think it is hyperbole to state that it was "Stevie Y" who turned around the fortunes of Detroit's member of the Original Six.

Nicklas Lidstrom is, without question, the most outstanding Defenseman in the history of the Detroit Red Wings, and we feel equally confident saying he was the best blueliner of his generation.

With a claim as one of the first really good American Defenseman, Reed Larson learned his craft from the legendary Herb Brooks at the University of Minnesota.

From a Ukrainian background in the tundra of Winnipeg, Terry Sawchuk is one of the greatest hockey players to emerge from the province of Manitoba.  The Red Wings signed the Goalie in 1947, and after a stint in the minors, he was called up to replace the injured Harry Lumley late in the 1949-50 Season.  Lumley never played for Detroit again.

One of the fastest players of his day, Hec Kilrea began his career with the Ottawa Senators, where in the 1929/30 season he had a 58 Point season over a 44 Game campaign, which was good enough for fifth overall that year.  Kilrea won a Stanley Cup with the Senators in 1927 and was also a two-time winner with the Detroit Red Wings in 1936 and 1937.

A three-time NHL All-Star and one-time Canada Cup player for the United States, Reed Larson had eight seasons where he had at least 60 Points.  Larson was never an All-Star, though the Calder Trophy runner-up had more than a good career in the National Hockey League.  Historically, Larson was the first American-born blueliner to score 200 Goals in the NHL.

John Ogrodnick was at his best when he played for the Detroit Red Wings in the first half of the 1980s, which was where he went to five All-Star Games.  Unfortunately for Ogrodnick, Detroit was not particularly good when he played there, but while he was in Motown, he was a near Point-per-Game player, and he was named a First Team All Star in the 1984-85 season, where he scored 105 Points.  He would score 827 Points in his NHL career.

Despite playing his entire career in an Original Six city, Henrik Zetterberg had a brilliant under-the-radar career.  The Swedish Centre was the runner-up for the Calder Trophy in 2003, and two seasons later, he would develop into one of the most well-rounded players in the National Hockey League.