Red Wings assistant GM/Grand Rapids Griffins GM Shawn Horcoff’s son, Will, was drafted 24th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2025 NHL Draft this past June, and the younger Horcoff reveals that he’s spent a considerable amount of his time playing pickleball against the Red Wings’ front office, as noted by Pickleball.com’s Matt Cudzinowski:
The 18-year-old forward grew up in the Detroit suburbs just steps away from a court courtesy of his father, former NHL player, Shawn Horcoff, who suited up for over 1,000 games between Edmonton, Dallas, and Anaheim.
“We’ve kind of played our whole lives. Our old house in Birmingham had a court in the backyard and so does our new house in Bloomfield Hills, so it’s one thing that I’ve played since I was very young. It’s something that my family has always played,” said Horcoff, a first-round NHL Draft selection (24th overall) this past June. “My friends would come over and play, too. We would just play all the time growing up.”
Horcoff, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, also has fond memories of watching his father and his work colleagues from the Detroit Red Wings front office go head-to-head on the 20×44 from time to time.
Guests included Stanley Cup champions, Kris Draper and Dan Cleary, whose genuine appreciation for America’s fastest-growing sport is well documented.
Shawn currently works as the assistant general manager of the Red Wings and general manager of the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins as well.
“I just love how competitive it was. They’d be best friends, but screaming at each other and going at it,” recalled Horcoff. “That’s what I loved about it, just guys getting super into it. Those were really fun games to watch. There were some pretty heated matches.”
Continued; Kris Draper is so good at pickleball that he rides a fine line between his amateur status and professional status. Here’s hoping that Draper’s recovering well from his hip replacement surgery in the spring as well.
