GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Thirty-three players with Grand Rapids Griffins playing experience will be among the 72 Detroit Red Wings stars, prospects and invitees who will take to the ice this Friday, Sept. 14 for five days of Red Wings training camp at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, Mich.

Eighteen players who skated for the Griffins during the 2017-18 season are slated to participate, including defensemen Dennis Cholowski, Joe Hicketts, Filip Hronek, Brian Lashoff, Dylan McIlrath, Vili Saarijarvi and Libor Sulak; and forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Colin Campbell, Turner Elson, Matthew Ford, Axel Holmstrom, Matt Puempel, Dylan Sadowy, Dominik Shine, Evgeny Svechnikov, Dominic Turgeon and Trevor Yates.

Also present at camp will be 15 others with previous Griffins playing experience – Justin Abdelkader, Andreas Athanasiou, Danny DeKeyser, Jonathan Ericsson, Martin Frk, Luke Glendening, Darren Helm, Jimmy Howard, Nick Jensen, Niklas Kronwall, Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Pat Nagle, Gustav Nyquist and Givani Smith – and more than a dozen others who could make their Grand Rapids debuts this season.

Griffins first-year head coach Ben Simon and assistant coaches Matt Macdonald, Brad Tapper and Mike Knuble will assist the Red Wings’ coaching staff, headed by former Grand Rapids bench boss Jeff Blashill, during the camp, which concludes next Tuesday, Sept. 18.

Players will be divided into three groups for practices and scrimmages during camp. Sunday will see a Red vs. White Game at noon, with the players not participating in the game practicing at 9:30 a.m. Daily on-ice practices the remaining four days will begin with the first group hitting the ice at 9:30 a.m.

Upon breaking camp, the Red Wings will begin their eight-game preseason slate with a three-games-in-four-nights home stretch that starts Wednesday, Sept. 19 versus Pittsburgh.

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 Oct. 1 to begin preparations for the season.

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

The Griffins will begin the 2018-19 campaign with a pair of games at Texas on Oct. 5 and San Antonio on Oct. 6 before returning to Van Andel Arena for Opening Night presented by Huntington Bank on Friday, Oct. 12 against Hershey.

Single-game tickets will go on sale to the public tomorrow 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