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
Friday, September 11th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
8:30-9:15 a.m.
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.
4:00 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
7:30 p.m.
Saturday, September 12th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
8:30-9:15 a.m.
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
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 13th 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 14th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
8:30-9:15 a.m.
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
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 15th DAVID’S RINK WEST RINK
10:00-10:45 a.m. 2nd Lindsay 2nd Howe
11:00-11:45 a.m. 1st Howe
3:00 p.m. 7th place game 4th Lindsay vs. 4th Howe David’s
3:30 p.m. 5th place game 3rd Howe vs. 3rd Lindsay West
6:30 p.m. 3rd place game 2nd Lindsay vs. 2nd Howe David’s
7:00 p.m. Championship Game 1st Howe vs. 1st Lindsay West
