The Red Wings’ prospect tournament begins today in Traverse City, MI, and MLive’s Ansar Khan spoke with Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin regarding the tournament:
“We’ve got players coming into this tournament that have played one year in the American League and are looking to establish themselves to have a greater presence, at least at that level, and show perhaps they’re ready for more, like Vili Saarijarvi and Axel Holmstrom,” Martin said. “Tournament rules allow for four (AHL players). Because we’ve had so many draft picks the last couple years we’d rather play a lot of those younger players.
“There’s another group of players looking to show they’re ready to push to make Detroit. Givani Smith is looking for show he wants to be an everyday American League player. He wants to impress coach (Ben) Simon and let him know, assuming he’s in Grand Rapids, that he wants to be big part of that program.
“There’s a group of first- or second-year drafted prospects looking to earn contracts. There’s a few free agents looking to show they should have been drafted, like a Joe Hicketts situation where we signed him coming out of camp.”
“Everybody’s development path is different, so I think there’s a lot of different things that we as a staff will be watching. It’s really exciting because it’s a high level of hockey and probably the highest level these guys have ever played.”
