2017 NHL Prospect Tournament Set For Sept. 8-12 To Be Held In Traverse City
DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings will compete among a field of eight NHL teams when they host the 2017 NHL Prospect Tournament at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich., from Friday, Sept. 8 to Tuesday, Sept. 12. Held in northern Michigan for the 19th season, the eight-team tournament is comprised of the Red Wings, Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. Tickets for the tournament are still available for $10 per day, which covers four games, exclusively at Centre Ice Arena or online at www.centreice.org.
Twenty-six of the 35 players who skated for the Red Wings during the 2016-17 season are alumni of the NHL prospect tournament: Justin Abdelkader, Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Bertuzzi, Mitch Callahan, Jared Coreau, Jonathan Ericsson, Darren Helm, Jimmy Howard, Tomas Jurco, Niklas Kronwall, Dylan Larkin, Brian Lashoff, Anthony Mantha, Alexey Marchenko, Petr Mrazek, Tomas Nosek, Gustav Nyquist, Xavier Ouellet, Dan Renouf, Robbie Russo, Riley Sheahan, Brendan Smith, Ryan Sproul, Evgeny Svechnikov, Tomas Tatar and Henrik Zetterberg. Since the tournament's inception, a total of 500 skaters and 52 goaltenders have gone on to skate in at least one NHL game.
The tournament will divide the participating teams into two four-team divisions: the Gordie Howe Division (Carolina, Chicago, Detroit and NY Rangers) and the Ted Lindsay Division (Columbus, Dallas, Minnesota and St. Louis). Teams will play each opponent in their division in a round-robin format before a crossover on the final day of the tournament, capped off with the first-place finishers in each division meeting for the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup on Tuesday, Sept. 12. The tournament's championship trophy was renamed in 2015 in honor of Wuest (pronounced WEEST), known for his work on the website CapGeek.com as well as his exclusive coverage and statistical archiving of the NHL Prospect Tournament on RedWingsCentral.com, spanning back to the inaugural tournament in 1998. Wuest passed away in March 2015 after succumbing to a two-year battle with colon cancer.
Carolina returns to Traverse City as defending tournament champions, having defeated the Red Wings in the final game in 2016. The Red Wings have made it to the championship game two seasons in a row and in three of the past four seasons, winning their first and only tournament title in 2013. A complete tournament schedule can be found below. The Red Wings will release a finalized roster at a later date.
STREAMING: All games of the 2017 NHL Prospect Tournament will stream live on FOX Sports Go and DetroitRedWings.com. Users in the United States can download the FOX Sports Go app and stream every game of the tournament for free, regardless of cable or satellite provider. All games will also be carried live on DetroitRedWings.com with no geographic restrictions. Red Wings games will feature the play-by-play commentary of Red Wings radio broadcaster Ken Kal.
MEDIA CREDENTIALS: Media planning to cover the 2017 NHL Prospect Tournament or the Red Wings' main training camp (Sept. 15-18) must apply for credentials by clicking here. Centre Ice Arena is located at 1600 Chartwell Dr., Traverse City, Mich. The media entrance is located on the southwest corner of the building.
