I posted a look at all 30 teams ranked by age last week (with salary data), something that Earl Sleek mentioned would work well if broken down further by position.

That's a tough thing to do given we don't know exactly who will make NHL teams this season, but given some solid assumptions based on rosters are they are now, I crunched the numbers and came up with the following:

	No. of players	Avg. age	Average salary
Goalies	70	28.53	$2,144,165
Defence	239	28.24	$1,851,053
Forwards	441	27.72	$1,817,375
- centres	192	27.39	$1,907,427
- left wing	121	28.29	$1,715,591
- right wing	128	27.68	$1,778,516
Totals	750	27.96	$1,858,607

Forwards (Top 13)	Avg. age	Avg. salary	Salary rank
BUF	25.36	$2,095,110	12
S.J	25.66	$1,803,456	23
PHI	25.79	$2,199,472	7
FLA	26.30	$1,897,503	19
PHX	26.38	$1,208,436	30
EDM	26.54	$2,091,972	13
CHI	26.59	$2,454,167	2
MTL	26.94	$1,816,164	22
WSH	27.02	$1,679,241	26
BOS	27.06	$2,163,718	11
L.A	27.07	$1,903,878	17
PIT	27.38	$1,842,887	21
CBJ	27.40	$2,178,785	9
OTT	27.46	$1,756,047	24
ANA	27.74	$1,587,832	29
N.J	28.04	$2,177,884	10
MIN	28.14	$2,195,923	8
NYR	28.24	$2,700,037	1
COL	28.45	$2,060,779	15
TOR	28.75	$1,851,713	20
NSH	28.93	$1,618,737	28
T.B	28.96	$2,228,974	5
VAN	29.04	$1,903,526	18
CGY	29.14	$2,216,830	6
DAL	29.26	$1,732,500	25
DET	29.55	$1,620,972	27
CAR	29.72	$2,368,015	3
NYI	29.74	$1,905,377	16
STL	30.05	$2,078,910	14
ATL	30.36	$2,256,227	4

Defence (Top 7)	Avg. age	Avg. salary	Salary rank
CHI	24.35	$1,303,074	30
WSH	25.27	$1,482,639	28
PHX	26.13	$2,354,881	8
NSH	26.35	$1,495,810	26
S.J	26.63	$1,484,629	27
STL	26.73	$2,648,529	4
BOS	26.90	$2,275,700	10
CBJ	27.25	$1,565,278	24
T.B	27.29	$1,548,530	25
OTT	27.30	$2,506,076	6
EDM	27.35	$2,216,436	11
NYR	27.43	$1,879,071	18
TOR	27.62	$2,848,571	1
COL	27.65	$1,785,131	20
FLA	28.02	$1,921,429	17
NYI	28.10	$1,333,714	29
N.J	28.13	$1,681,143	21
PIT	28.49	$2,023,125	15
VAN	28.91	$2,025,000	14
PHI	28.99	$2,294,819	9
CGY	29.04	$2,132,571	12
ATL	29.08	$1,579,702	22
L.A	29.36	$2,649,857	3
BUF	30.14	$1,866,071	19
DAL	30.60	$2,060,913	13
MTL	31.05	$2,550,000	5
MIN	31.41	$2,007,143	16
CAR	31.53	$1,568,857	23
ANA	31.83	$2,408,214	7
DET	31.89	$2,845,714	2

Goalies	Avg. age	Avg. salary	Salary rank
MTL	24.77	$2,110,417	17
PIT	24.86	$903,625	28
CGY	25.20	$2,107,083	18
S.J	26.07	$2,990,417	9
MIN	26.36	$1,912,500	22
NYI	27.25	$2,500,000	12
ANA	27.66	$3,590,625	3
CAR	27.74	$2,033,333	19
NYR	27.75	$2,433,750	14
COL	27.94	$3,016,667	8
PHX	28.04	$700,000	30
VAN	28.14	$3,675,000	2
PHI	28.61	$2,362,500	16
FLA	28.71	$3,125,000	7
DAL	28.73	$3,325,000	5
TOR	28.79	$1,687,500	24
STL	28.92	$1,341,000	26
OTT	28.95	$3,433,333	4
ATL	29.04	$1,425,000	25
CBJ	29.27	$950,000	27
NSH	29.27	$875,000	29
L.A	29.48	$1,962,500	20
T.B	29.66	$1,933,333	21
BUF	29.87	$1,713,333	23
BOS	33.18	$2,716,667	11
EDM	33.75	$2,383,333	15
N.J	33.85	$2,943,750	10
CHI	33.88	$3,850,000	1
WSH	33.92	$3,131,250	6
DET	38.66	$2,475,000	13

It's tough to differentiate between the bottom rung defencemen and forwards on many teams, but with the majority of those players coming in at the same age range and salary, that's not going to sway the results monumentally.

(In other words, I think this is a reasonably close look at where teams will fit in these categories when the season starts.)

Points of interest here? Well, the Sharks and Coyotes come in with the youngest teams at every position, while several other clubs are young in only one particular area (Buffalo up front, Chicago on defence, Pittsburgh in goal, etc.).

Detroit is old across the board, something influenced heavily by the fact they have two of the league's three 40-and-over players.

As for salary rank, there are some surprises:

Goal - Chicago, Vancouver and Anaheim spend the most; Phoenix, Nashville and Pittsburgh the least.
Defence - Toronto, Detroit, Los Angeles spend the most; Chicago, the Islanders, Washington the least.
Forwards - The Rangers, Chicago, Carolina spend the most; Phoenix, Anaheim, Nashville the least.

Several teams fall into these basic categories:
$ mostly on goaltending (Vancouver, Florida, Dallas, Washington)
$ mostly on defence (St. Louis, Toronto, Los Angeles, Montreal)
$ mostly on forwards (Columbus, Minnesota, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Atlanta)

There's a ton of data here — I'll be interested to see what trends others can spot.