GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Thirty-five players with Grand Rapids Griffins playing experience will be among the 67 players who will take to the ice this Friday, Sept. 13 for four days of Detroit Red Wings training camp at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich.

Players will be divided into three groups for daily on-ice practices that begin at 9:30 a.m. The team’s annual Red & White Game will be held on Sunday at noon.

Upon breaking camp on Monday, the Red Wings will begin their nine-game preseason docket on Tuesday, Sept. 17 against Chicago at Little Caesars Arena.

Many players who will eventually comprise the Griffins’ roster will remain with the Red Wings throughout the preseason, until the Griffins return to Grand Rapids on Sept. 30 to begin preparations for their season opener on Oct. 5 at Chicago.

Twenty-three players who skated for the Griffins during the 2018-19 season are slated to participate, including defensemen Dennis Cholowski, Marcus Crawford, Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek, Brian Lashoff, Dylan McIlrath, Vili Saarijarvi; forwards Christoffer Ehn, Turner Elson, Matthew Ford, Troy Loggins, Jarid Lukosevicius, Chase Pearson, David Pope, Matt Puempel, Michael Rasmussen, Dominik Shine, Givani Smith, Tyler Spezia, Chris Terry, Dominic Turgeon, Filip Zadina; and goaltender Pat Nagle.

Also present at camp will be 12 others with previous Griffins playing experience – Justin Abdelkader, Andreas Athanasiou, Tyler Bertuzzi, Danny DeKeyser, Jonathan Ericsson, Valtteri Filppula, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, Jimmy Howard, Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha and Evgeny Svechnikov – and more than a dozen others who could make their Grand Rapids debuts this season.

Griffins second-year head coach Ben Simon along with assistant coaches Matt Macdonald, Todd Krygier and Mike Knuble, and goaltending development coach Brian Mahoney-Wilson will assist the Red Wings’ coaching staff, headed by former Grand Rapids bench boss Jeff Blashill, during the camp.

The complete Red Wings roster and camp schedule can be found at detroitredwings.com.

The Griffins will begin the 2019-20 campaign at Chicago on Oct. 5 before returning to Van Andel Arena for Opening Night presented by Huntington Bank on Friday, Oct. 11 against Milwaukee.

Single-game tickets will go on sale to the public this Friday at 10 a.m. Fans can secure their full-season, select-season or group ticket packages by calling (616) 774-4585 ext. 2 or visit griffinshockey.com for more information.


Photo by Sam Iannamico/Griffins