The Detroit Red Wings announced plans for their annual fall prospects camp, training camp and alumni game.

Prospects Camp
Detroit’s NHL Prospect Tournament will celebrate its 20th anniversary when it begins Sept. 7 in Traverse City, Mich., continuing through Sept. 11.

Squads on future hopefuls from eight different NHL teams will again participate in the event, divided up into two four-team divisions. Along with the host Red Wings and defending tournament champion Chicago Blackhawks, other teams involved this season include the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues.

The teams will be split into two four-team divisions, playing each team in their division in a round-robin format before a crossover match on the final day of the tournament. The first-place finishers in each division will meet for the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup on Sept. 11.

The tournament’s championship trophy was renamed in 2015 to honor Wuest, known for his work on the website CapGeek.com as well as his coverage and statistical archiving of the NHL Prospect Tournament on RedWingsCentral.com, spanning back to the inaugural tournament in 1998. Wuest died in 2015, losing a two-year battle with colon cancer.

Over the course of the tournament’s history, nearly 600 players have moved on to play in at least one NHL game, including
21 of the 30 players who played for the Red Wings in 2017-18, from stars like current captain Henrik Zetterberg and Dylan Larkin, to players on the cusp of making the Wings lineup like Joe Hicketts and Evgeny Svechnikov.

Training Camp
Main Red Wings camp for the 2018-19 Red Wings season will open Sept. 14 and continue through Sept. 18. Wings players, prospects and tryouts will be divided into teams that will practice and scrimmage throughout camp, including the annual Red and White Game on Sept. 16 at 12 p.m.

Following the Red and White game, the team will remain in Traverse City and hold practices on Sept. 17-18 prior to breaking camp for Detroit to begin their preseason schedule at Little Caesars Arena on Sept. 19 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. The full camp roster and the complete training camp schedule will be announced at a later date.

Alumni Game
The Alumni Game, a popular feature of training camp, will held for the sixth year. It is slated for Sept. 19 with a 7 p.m. start time.

The game will take on a new format this season. Ateam of Red Wings alumni will face off against Guns-n-Hoses, a team consisting of players from local Traverse City police and fire departments. Guns-n-Hoses is a non-profit organization created to assist individuals and families in need in the Grand Traverse community.

Red Wings alumni and celebrities slated to participate include three members of The Grind Line - Kris
Draper, Kirk Maltby and Darren McCarty - Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Mark Howe; Red Wings player
development staff Shawn Horcoff and Dan Cleary; and 2008 Stanley Cup champion and Traverse City resident Dallas Drake. A full roster will be announced at a later date.

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