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Wings believe their NHL prospects tourney to be the best |
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Maybe it could strike you as a little less than modest, but if you ask a member of the brass of the Detroit Red Wings about their annual NHL Prospects Tournament, currently in the midst of its 19th year in Traverse City, Mich., you can expect their chests to puff out with pride.
“I think it’s the best tournament in the league and comparatively to where these players have played I believe it’s the highest level of hockey that many or most of them have ever played, better than the World Junior,” expressed Detroit assistant general manager Ryan Martin of the eight-team tournament. “There were 32 players that played in this tournament last year who played NHL games last season.
“I think every year you’ll find 4-6 players that play in this tournament go on and earn the NHL full-time with their respective club, so it’s a high-level, eight organizations’ best prospects under the age of 23 or 24. Therefore putting them in that type of competitive environment is a great tool for us as management and scouts to be able to evaluate these players.”
While they expect the tournament to be contested at a high level – Detroit has won the event just once in its 19-year existence – the expectations for the players involved vary depending upon where each player is on their hockey learning curve.
Current Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg, for example, jumped right into the NHL after participating in the tournament in 2002, but he’d already seen extensive duty in Sweden’s Elitserien, and played in the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
“What we’re looking for in this is . . . everybody, speaking of our team, is on a different career path,” Martin said. “We’ve got players in this tournament that have a year of American League experience and in a couple of cases, they’re pressing to make the Red Wings, or at least get on the radar to be called up during the season.
Martin cited players such as forward Tyler Bertuzzi and defenseman Robbie Russo as guys who are on the cusp of NHL status.
“There’s other players who’ve just been drafted by us, like (2006 selections defenseman) Filip Hronek or (forward) Givani Smith that we think are really good prospects but they’re just starting out their junior career, and going back to play junior.
“This is an exposure for them at a high level and it’s great for us to see how they stack up against seven other organizations’ high-end prospects.
“And then there’s other classes of players like college free agents, like Mike Borkowski, or Kyle Criscuolo, or Dan Renouf, who we signed last year to an NHL deal as a college free agent, or a major junior free agent that went through the draft (unselected). All those guys are trying to earn an NHL contract, or if they’re on a minor league (deal) or a tryout, trying to establish themselves as pros.
“So I think the measuring stick or the barometer for each player at this tournament is different. We understand that, as do evaluators, but I think ultimately it’s important to evaluate everybody in this type of environment because it’s such high-level competition against elite players.”
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