Traverse City Prospects Tournament Information, Dates, and Schedule

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings will host seven other NHL teams during the 2015 NHL Prospect Tournament at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich., from Friday, Sept. 11 to Tuesday, Sept. 15. Returning to northern Michigan for the 17th 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.

This season, the 2015 defending Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks return to the tournament, replacing the Buffalo Sabres, after previously participating from 1998-2000. Over the tournament's history, 479 players have gone on to skate in at least one NHL game, including 22 who played for Detroit in 2014-15: Justin Abdelkader, Joakim Andersson, Dan Cleary, Pavel Datsyuk, Jonathan Ericsson, Landon Ferraro, Darren Helm, Jimmy Howard, Tomas Jurco, Niklas Kronwall, Brian Lashoff, Alexey Marchenko, Tom McCollum, Petr Mrazek, Gustav Nyquist, Xavier Ouellet, Teemu Pulkkinen, Kyle Quincey, Riley Sheahan, Brendan Smith, Tomas Tatar and Henrik Zetterberg.

The tournament will divide the participating teams into two four-team divisions: the Gordie Howe Division (Carolina, Chicago, Dallas and Detroit) and the Ted Lindsay Division (Columbus, Minnesota, NY Rangers 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. 15. The tournament's championship trophy was renamed this summer 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.

After Detroit captured its first-ever tournament title in September 2013, coached by new Red Wings head coach and then-Grand Rapids Griffins coach Jeff Blashill, the Blue Jackets return to Traverse City this year as reigning champions. A complete schedule can be found below. The Red Wings will release a finalized roster at a later date.

2015 NHL PROSPECTS TOURNAMENT
TRAVERSE CITY, MI – SEPTEMBER 11-15, 2015

GORDIE HOWE DIVISION TED LINDSAY DIVISION
Carolina                                                   Columbus
Chicago                                                   Minnesota
Dallas                                                      NY Rangers
Detroit                        St. Louis

Friday, September 11^th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
8:30-9:15 a.m. Minnesota                         NY Rangers
9:30-10:15 a.m. St. Louis                            Columbus
10:30-11:15 a.m. Chicago                             Dallas
11:30-12:15 p.m. Carolina                             Detroit

HOME VISITOR RINK
3:30 p.m. Minnesota          vs.           NY Rangers       David’s
4:00 p.m. St. Louis            vs.            Columbus          West
7:00 p.m. Chicago             vs.            Dallas                David’s
7:30 p.m. Carolina             vs.            Detroit               West

Saturday, September 12^th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
8:30-9:15 a.m. Dallas                                Carolina
9:30-10:15 a.m. Chicago                             Detroit
10:30-11:15 a.m. Minnesota                          Columbus
11:30-12:15 p.m. NY Rangers                       St. Louis

HOME VISITOR RINK
3:30 p.m. Dallas                 vs.            Carolina             David’s
4:00 p.m. Detroit                vs.            Chicago              West
7:00 p.m. Columbus           vs.            Minnesota          David’s
7:30 p.m. St. Louis             vs.            NY Rangers       West

Sunday, September 13^th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
9:30-10:30 a.m. Carolina                              Dallas
10:45-11:45 a.m. Chicago                              Detroit
12:00 -1:00 p.m. Minnesota                           Columbus
1:15-2:15 p.m. St. Louis                              NY Rangers

Monday, September 14^th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
8:30-9:15 a.m. Minnesota                          St. Louis
9:30-10:15 a.m. NY Rangers                       Columbus
10:30-11:15 a.m. Carolina                             Chicago
11:30-12:15 p.m. Dallas                                 Detroit

HOME VISITOR RINK
3:00 p.m. Minnesota          vs.            St. Louis             David’s
3:30 p.m. NY Rangers       vs.            Columbus           West
6:30 p.m. Carolina             vs.            Chicago              David’s
7:00 p.m. Dallas                vs.             Detroit                West

Tuesday, September 15^th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
10:00-10:45 a.m. 2^nd Lindsay                        2^nd Howe
11:00-11:45 a.m. 1^st Howe                           1^st Lindsay

HOME VISITOR RINK
3:00 p.m. 7^th place game           4^th Lindsay         vs.           4^th Howe           David’s
3:30 p.m. 5^th place game           3^rd Howe            vs.           3^rd Lindsay        West
6:30 p.m. 3^rd place game           2^nd Lindsay         vs.           2^nd Howe          David’s
7:00 p.m. Championship Game 1^st Howe             vs.           1^st Lindsay        West