Red Wings’ Annual Prospect Tournament ‘Up in the Air’

TRAVERSE CITY — Dan Cleary’s fondness for the Red Wings-hosted Traverse City NHL Prospect Tournament is rooted in both nostalgia and practicality.

“I came up to the first ever tournament here when I was in Chicago,” the Red Wings Director of Player Development said. “We drove up and stayed in one of those little motels along the water…when I was 18. So I certainly hope it stays.”

Today, Cleary’s enjoyment of the tournament comes from watching some of his team’s best young prospects measuring themselves against other top prospects. Cleary and the Detroit executives were doing that last week when the Red Wings played the Dallas Stars youngsters in two games.

“I like the idea. I know it’s only one team, but just to judge them against their peers and see where they stack up and the competition, and it sets these kids up for a great week (at training camp),” Cleary said. “… Have put a lot of value in it. I gotta be honest.”

The members of the Red Wings and Stars management teams watched that tournament knowing they may have been witnessing the end of an era. After 25 tournaments, GMs Steve Yzerman and Dallas GM Jim Nill are discussing the tournament’s future.

“The event up in Traverse City is a little bit up in the air for next year,” Yzerman said.

Participation Falling

Yzerman said the tournament “appears to have run its course a lot over the last three or four years.”

At one point, the tournament had eight NHL teams competing. Over the last few years, it has been down to four teams, before talling to two teams this season.

“At one point, we tried to get it to 10 teams,” Nill recalled. “We were going to expand.”

This event, located on the shores of Lake Michigan, was the premier NHL prospect tournament. Traverse City is a resort locale. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Ilya Kovalchuk. Jamie Benn. Kari Lehtonen. Jimmy Howard. Dany Heatley. Lucas Raymond. Niklas Kronwall. Brent Burns. Alexander Semin. Marco Kasper. Scott Hartnell. Tage Thompson. Jason Robertson. Miro Heiskanen. Rick Nash. Adam Fantilli. Those are some of the players who introduced themselves to the NHL at this tournament. Plenty of fans show up to watch these games. Proceeds go to youth hockey.

“What makes this unique is the location, the people, you look in the rink and it is all volunteers,” Nill said. “The work these volunteers put into it. What it means to the community, the city and the area. That’s what makes it special.”

Nill was working for the Red Wings, under Ken Holland, when they hatched the idea for the tournament in 1996. “We used to bring young kids to training camp, and they have to go on the ice with Steve Yzerman and Nick Lidstrom,” Nill recalled “They were coming out of juniors or Europe. First they are in awe, and then they step on the ice with Yzerman and Lidstrom. How do they evaluate them?”

That’s when they decided to hold a tournament to pit prospects against each other. “We had to refine it a little bit,” Nill said. “The first year or two there were a bunch of fights.”

They altered the rules, started to put restrictions on who was eligible to play, and GMs couldn’t wait to bring their teams. It was beneficial for GMs for evaluating their prospects, and also to see how their drafting strategy compared to other teams.

Bragging Rights

“You can evaluate kids on their level, and evaluate your organization,” Nill said. “I could sit there and say, ‘We are lacking some size here or some speed. I just saw Columbus play or Detroit play, and they are ahead of us. Have to be careful.'”

Teams took pride in winning the tournament. It was a challenging tournament to win. The Red Wings only won twice before this season when they swept Dallas.

But over time, teams began to have different priorities. The Chicago Blackhawks, who used to come to Traverse City, host a tournament that includes the St. Louis Blues, another former Traverse City competitor. The Blue Jackets, who played in Traverse City in 2023, were in Buffalo last week.

“Teams wanted to do different things.” Yzerman said. “Some didn’t want to play four games. Some wanted to save the expense and not have to travel to Traverse City. They’re able to do different things. Some didn’t want to play four games, so Dallas and ourselves played two. I thought it was a productive weekend. I like playing the two games. Would we be interested in playing a third? That might be ideal.”

Yzerman and Nill talked in Traverse City and will talk again. Nothing is settled.

“Potentially we continue with just the two teams,” Yzerman said. “Maybe we try to get a third team. Maybe we do it down in Dallas.”