Red Wings prospects JP Hurlbert, Victor Plante and Brent Solomon are taking part in a pre-camp held by the U.S. World Junior Summer Showcase team at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center this week, ahead of next week’s WJSS in Windsor, Ontario.
Today, the Detroit News’s Connor Eargood reports that Hurlbert and Plante are skating on a line together at the BELFOR, and that they’re looking good:
Detroit draftees J.P. Hurlbert and Victor Plante played with 2027 draft-eligible Sammy Nelson and looked like a strong group as Team USA evaluates a 48-player group contending for December’s 25-man World Junior roster.
Hurlbert and Plante, drafted by the Red Wings in the first and second rounds, respectively, last month in Buffalo, bring strong offensive toolkits to the grouping. Nelson dominated drills at both ends of the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s Belfor training center. The group played with an attacking mindset, and that meshed well with the identity Team USA is preaching at this early camp.
“There’s a lot of good players out there, and it’s going to be competitive to make the team for sure,” said USA coach Adam Nightingale, the head coach at Michigan State. But definitely, some guys you can tell are starting to step off the page a little bit.”
If Nelson and the Wings fit that bill, then their performance is more of a reunion tour than a breakthrough debut. The line skated together with the U.S. National Team Development Program before Hurlbert spent last season with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers. All that earlier experience is something the group can draw on.
But it’s a summer evaluation camp, and kids will be, well, kids:
Practices at Belfor were held in familiar confines for Hurlbert and Plante, who spent some time together there at Detroit Red Wings development camp earlier this month. The two appear to get along well. After one reporter asked Plante about Hurlbert’s skill set, and Plante gave a complimentary review, Hurlbert slid his fellow draftee a fist bump and a grin. Plante, 18, is headed to Minnesota-Duluth this fall, while Hurlbert, 18, is joining Michigan.
This summer has been a whirlwind for Hurlbert. After the draft and development camp, he has been training in Detroit while living with fellow prospects Carter Bear (first-round pick by the Red Wings in 2025) and Justice Christensen (Grand Rapids signee). A lot of that training is preparing him to scale up from junior hockey to the NCAA.
“I think for me it’s kind of bigger, faster, stronger,” Hurlbert told The News. “Obviously, I’m going to play against men now in college and 24-year-olds, so I gotta be strong physically and be able to get away and use separation. So the gym’s been a big thing for me and just kind of evaluating my all-around game.”
Continued (paywall); it’s just a summertime skate for a World Junior evaluation tournament, but any positive news is positive news for Red Wings fans on a strange summer day.
