As the Detroit Red Wings opened their development camp on Tuesday, Shawn Horcoff, the team’s co-director of player development along with Dan Cleary felt it a good time to assess where the future of this franchise might be headed.

“It looks good,” Horcoff told Mlive.com. “We have a lot of numbers and a lot of options. We’re excited. The draft went very well for us this year, we were happy with the draft last year. I think the development of the guys we drafted last year to this year has been great. The crop of 10 we just added only makes it deeper.”

The goal of these summer camps isn’t to grade players and figure out where they fit into the grand scheme - that type of assessing is left to the fall - but the most important element at this stage is to ensure the players are on the correct path that they need to be in order to have a chance to make a difference, to stand out and eventually work their way to the NHL.

“I never had any of this,” Horcoff said. “It’s so much different. When I was growing up, guys only started skating in August, really. Sure, guys were training. That’s when things, when I first started, things really started in that aspect.

“Nowadays, kids have nutritionists and doctors and personal trainers and skills coaches and skating coaches, which is good. That’s why you see the game is becoming faster, better and more skilled.”

Beyond on-ice lessons, the Wings seek to instill in their future hopefuls the sorts of options that can give them a leg up on the competition in the dog eat dog world of professional sports, everything from off-ice training methods to nutrition, even cooking lessons.

“(Wings general manager) Ken (Holland) has a great speech where he outlines what it takes to be a pro - not just a pro, but what it takes to be a Detroit Red Wing,” Horcoff said. “He talked a little bit about the history, a little bit about the facility and how things are changing down here.”

It’s a long day’s work for these kids, but that’s another lesson to be learned, especially for the 2018 draftees. Their rights belong to an NHL team. Hockey is now their job, and it’s up to them if they will make it their livelihood.

“The first group was here at 7 a.m. and they’re done at 4 (p.m.), so today is a long day with testing and physicals and all that,” Horcoff said. “On top of that, one group of defensemen and forwards will go for PP, more skill work, while the other ones, we brought in a video skill work guy to do some work with the guys on showing video on how offense is created at the NHL level.

“I think it takes some of these guys a long time. We want to expedite that curve. We want to show them early and get them thinking about what they’re going to need to do at the NHL level in order to produce offense, and on top of that we’ve got some dryland stickhandling, the sort of stuff they can do to improve their skill level away from the rink.”

For many of these prospects, this week is about taking that first step in the journey toward what for some will end with the chance to pull on a Red Wings sweater and play in an NHL regular-season game. For an ever smaller number, they will find their way into life as regulars in the NHL.

“There’s a lot of things that go onto being a good pro,” Horcoff said. “We’re going to expose them to a lot of information over the next five days, all aspects from on-ice intensity, on-ice habits, to what it takes off the ice to not just make it to the NHL, but to play a long time. So there’s lots of information but that’s what we’re here for.”

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