Today's must-read bit of investigative blogging comes from The Falconer over on Do The Thrashers Have Large Talons? He assembled the most likely starting rosters for all 30 NHL teams and put together a rather fascinating ranking of the "weighted ages" for teams in the 2008-09 season.

In comparison to last year's averages ages, here's what he discovered:

Getting Younger

Carolina Hurricanes: 2nd to 14th (-2.08 years)
Los Angeles Kings: 18th to 29th (-1.53)
Atlanta Thrashers: 4th to 13th (-1.47)
Detroit Red Wings: 1st to 3rd (-1.25)
St. Louis Blues: 16th to 26th (-1.04)

Getting Older

Washington Capitals: 25th to 9th (+1.72)
San Jose Sharks: 24th to 8th (+1.33)
Edmonton Oilers: 29th to 21st (+1.32)
New Jersey Devils: 8th to 2nd (+1.31)
Colorado Avalanche: 10th to 5th (+0.93)

Some of these numbers could still change: The Falconer doesn't have Joe Sakic in the Colorado figure, and one Michael Nylander trade could change the Capitals' number in a hurry. Since we're dealing with averages, any veteran dump or acquisition by a team is going to reconfigure their overall age; witness the dramatic shift for the Kings and Sharks based on Rob Blake.

The Falconer states a few findings based on the research. The projected youngest team in the NHL this season is the Chicago Blackhawks with an average of 25.8 years old; note that none of the bottom five in ages last season qualified for the Stanley Cup playoffs. But they did lead the League in Gary Roberts yelling at them to get off his lawn.

Falconer writes that teams "risk a performance collapse at some point if they cannot integrate younger players into their core." This is second nature to the Red Wings; for a team like the Calgary Flames, however, he "might be a bit worried."

Of particular interest: Western Conference playoff teams tend to be older than teams in the East. With the constant complaints about the unfair travel disadvantages facing the West, you'd figure teams might go a little younger in order to handle the rigorous schedule.

Or maybe Chelios just has too many frequent flier miles to ignore ...