Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen and Bob Duff posted a pair of articles this morning, discussing the Red Wings’ present state, as well as the team’s training camp plans.
First, Allen discusses the Red Wings’ lack of urgency to make moves over the course of this weekend’s 2026 NHL Draft…
Forwards J.J. Peterka, Mason McTavish, Pavel Dorofeyev and Andrei Nichushkin were all traded Friday. And none of them ended up on the Red Wings roster. With the Dylan Larkin trade request clouding the team’s future, it’s fair to say the fan base is looking for something, anything really, that sends the message that they are taking steps to improve the situation.
Fans are waiting for them to trade Dylan Larkin for a strong return, trade for a center, re-sign Patrick Kane, make an aggressive offer to Columbus for Kirill Marchenko, hear that Alex DeBrincat plans to stay in Detroit and add a veteran scorer like Rickard Rakell or Bryan Rust or move Michael Rasmussen and Mason Appleton to make room for more physical players.
If they could start working off that checklist, fan morale would likely improve.
And second, Bob Duff took note of GM Steve Yzerman’s remarks as to why the team chose to hold their 2026-2027 season’s training camp at Little Caesars Arena:
Training camp will be just four days in length, from September 17-20. The NHL preseason is shortening from eight games to four this fall.
“Training camp is just shorter,” Yzerman said. “With things so shortened, a compressed camp, a compressed preseason, it’s just that we want to try something different. We think this will be the best, more efficient use of our time to just remain here in Detroit at LCA.”
Both the training camp and the traditional Red Wings NHL rookie tournament are being relocated to Little Caesars Arena and the adjacent BELFOR Training Center. The rookie tourney will be held from September 12-15. Joining the Red Wings in this event will be rookie teams from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
Not only are the Red Wings relocating the club’s training camp, but it will be taking on a much different look. The players who have no shot of making the NHL roster will not be getting an invitation to the NHL camp.
“It’ll be a little bit smaller training camp, probably with fewer bodies at camp and fewer days,” Yzerman said. “We just thought it made sense and was more practical to do it at home this year.”
Continued; Yzerman also said that the Wings won’t rule out returning to the Cherry Capital at some point in the future, but it’s hard to imagine the team not utilizing their own facilities for training camp.
Having the BELFOR Training Center’s rinks and locker rooms available makes the logistics of training camp much simpler, regrettably.
