After years of participating in the Traverse City Tournament, Dallas will host Detroit for a two-game prospect tournament this weekend
I was back in Traverse City last month and the memories came flooding back.
I grew up in Northern Michigan, so when the Detroit Red Wings started holding a prospect tournament every September in my hometown, it was a great bonus for me. I could go visit friends and family and watch the Stars prospects at the same time, and that was a perfect melding of wonderful experiences.
Ironically, current Stars GM Jim Nill helped start the prospect tournament when he was assistant GM with the Red Wings back in 1998, and it became a successful eight-team affair for a couple of decades. It started to thin in recent years as more options became available for the participating teams and the cost of getting to a valued northern vacation spot for 5-6 days got to be pretty pricey. So, the tournament was reduced to two teams, and this year the Stars and Red Wings will shift their games to Frisco instead.
That can be a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, the players don’t get the full experience of bonding in a fantastic camp setting with prospects from seven other NHL teams and plenty of things to do when you’re not playing. On the other hand, they also don’t have to go to Northern Michigan, then back to Dallas, then down to Cedar Park, then back to Dallas in a hectic replay of Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
“Now that we look back, I do think it might have been too much,” Nill said on Tuesday as he prepares to host games this Saturday and Sunday at Comerica Center and then roll straight into NHL camp on Wednesday in Frisco. “You had four games in five days that were pretty intense, and then you fly those guys right into camp. There’s no time to rest and there is a chance you can get banged up, so when it was at its height, it was probably a little too much.
“Here, we get two games, and I think that’s perfect,” Nill added. “The first one, you get a chance to shake off the rust, and the second one, you should be up and running, and then you go right into camp.”
It also gives Stars fans the benefit of seeing these games in person – and that is a real treat. In my time viewing the games at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, I’ve been struck by the level of competition. By taking a bunch of young 20-somethings and letting them go head-to-head, the intensity is significantly higher. When we get to the real NHL exhibition games, you have a mix of veterans and “kids” and there is usually no real flow. The veterans probably aren’t as engaged as you might like and are waiting around for the regular season to start. The kids are hesitant to do too much for fear of overstepping their “place” in the game. But in these prospect games, the top players go against the top players and you get full on vitriol.
One of my favorite memories was when Lian Bichsel played his first game and laid a big hit on a Red Wings prospect. Traverse City’s arena is filled with Detroit fans, so every time Bichsel touched the puck after that, he was soundly booed. The big defenseman loved it, and it really added to the fun of the game. Earlier in the history, Jamie Benn and James Neal combined to lead the tournament in scoring as they came together on the same line and played fantastic hockey. We have seen players like Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson build off their starts here. We have seen others start fast and fade away. But, either way, they needed to dip their toe in to find out.
“You look at players like Roope Hintz or Jason Robertson and you see that they can definitely work their way up,” Nill said. “It’s no secret we’ve traded away some of our picks and that has affected our pool. But you’ve got to find players in the draft no matter what, and then you have to work to develop them. Robertson is a great example, and Roope too, Esa [Lindell] too. The system works.”
This year, players such as Tristan Bertucci (second round in 2023), Emil Hemming (first round in 2024) and Cameron Schmidt (third round in 2025) will work for the next step in their progression; and doing it in Frisco could actually become a great memory.
“There could be a benefit to how we are doing this now,” said Rich Peverley, the Stars’ Director of Player Development. “You look at a guy turning pro, and you come to Dallas first, then to Traverse City, then to Austin, then back to Dallas and then back to Austin, that’s a lot to deal with. So this could actually be a little simpler and allow players to focus on their game more.”
Peverley credits the player development staff – including J.J. McQueen, Pär Johansson and Jordie Benn – with making sure the players are ready heading into the weekend. The prospects were already in Frisco for development camp in early July, and now they can take the next step after working on their own. Benn is taking a larger role after retiring from playing last year and brings with him 607 games of NHL experience, as well as a long trip to the top that included stops in the ECHL, the Central Hockey League and three seasons in the AHL.
“He’s been outstanding,” Peverley said of Benn. “He is great at communicating with the players, he’s great communicating with us. The fact he’s a year and a little bit away from playing, there is respect and knowledge of the game as it’s on the ice right now that really helps him communicate. The game has changed and he knows that.”
Benn, the older brother of Stars captain Jamie Benn, said he has enjoyed being a part of the development process. He had to work his way up as a role-playing defenseman and believes that message can be important to players in every stage of their career.
“I think it’s so beneficial to go to the AHL and learn to be an adult,” Benn said. “It is a process to become a professional, and it’s great to have as much time as possible. I’m a big advocate that you have to make them earn everything they get. I think that works out the best.”
Benn also has played for or with most of the current coaching staff, as well. He played under Glen Gulutzan in the AHL and NHL, and was teammates with Toby Petersen, who is taking over as the Texas Stars head coach and will lead the Stars prospects in these two games. Petersen was a cerebral player, and Benn said he will be a smart coach, as well.
“I’m excited for him,” Benn said. “He was a great player, he’s a very smart guy, I’m looking forward to this. Having played with him and watched how he saw the game, I’m really curious to see how he looks at things from this side of the ice.”
That’s all part of the beauty of a prospect game or tournament. You get to see a live performance of the youngest players before training camp starts, and that can be pretty revealing.
“We just thought it would be good to give the prospects a little bit of a head start, and it was probably one of the best things we did,” Nill said of the original tournament plan. “Players didn’t have to jump right in with NHL guys in camp, they played against their peers, and we also used it for tryouts and found several players that way. The level of hockey for this time of year is off the charts. They want to show each other what you can do and they want to show management what they can do. It’s a great thing to watch.”
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.
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