TORONTO -- When you have a team full of future Hall of Famers, winning is expected.

On the day when two former members of the Detroit Red Wings, defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and center Sergei Fedorov, were inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, Jim Devellano reminisced about the 2001-02 season. Detroit won its third of four Stanley Cups between 1997 and 2008.

"For [general manager] Ken Holland and myself, we were very nervous," Devellano, the Senior Vice President of the Red Wings said. "If we didn't win with that team. …holy cow! I mean we had Brett Hull, Dominik Hasek, Luc Robitaille, Igor Larionov, [Steve] Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom, Brendan Shanahan and Scotty Bowman. What a crew."

TORONTO -- When Borje Salming broke into the NHL as a defenseman with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1973, he was targeted by the League's toughest players; first because they wanted to see if he could stand up to physical abuse, but also because some players felt Europeans were stealing their jobs.

But with the speed and skill throughout the League in today's game, fighting in the NHL has been reduced to the point that a month into the season there are still three teams that do not have a single fighting major penalty.

"It probably would have been much better for me," Salming, 64, said Monday. "I used to say to people that Inge Hammarstrom, who came to Toronto with me, would have been great in today's game. When he came in he scored 20 goals, but he had exceptional skills and skating.

"I love today's game. That is the way hockey should be played."

TORONTO -- If this generation of young stars in the NHL feel they need a spokesman, they may have one in Dallas Stars general manager Jim Nill.

Nill should know; he has two skating on his top line in forwards Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. But he believes there are many others across the League.

"Guys like (Edmonton Oilers center) Connor McDavid or our guys, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, these guys are elite athletes," Nill said Monday. "I think the young players today might be even better than the younger players from 20 years ago. They are more worldly. They have all [played] on national junior teams and the pressure doesn't seem to get to them. These guys are driven. Our game has never been better."