Wings prospects win 🏒

The Red Wings prospects defeated the Stars prospects on Tuesday to win the prospects tournament in Traverse City.

Apparently there is a trophy for this -- "2019 Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup." There are videos on social media showing the Wings prospects hoisting this cup over their heads, celebrating, etc. 

The Red Wings social media team really played this up as if this is something HUGE for the organization. It was ... a bit much, in my opinion.

Don't misunderstand me here: I'm sure the diehard fans in Traverse City were loving it. If you're going to go watch the Red Wings prospect tournament, then it's pretty cool to see them win the championship game in a "dramatic" comeback. But let's not go crazy here: These are prospects, playing prospects, in September. Even if you watched all of these games very closely, taking notes on every player, you've learned nothing. So when you hear people start raving about undrafted Gregor MacLeod's performance, don't let them get too carried away.

Just because NHL teams are making a big deal about their prospect tournaments -- so they can sell tickets to another event in a different market and advertise for the season ahead -- these things are still pretty meaningless. It's just another part of training camp. It matters to the athletes, sure, because they are trying to make the team. Their performance in this tournament and camp could decide how much ice time they get in the preseason and, perhaps, beyond.

As I mentioned before, nothing will matter too much until the preseason when we can see the Red Wings prospects go up against real NHL players (men.)

Training camp is this weekend, followed by the preseason next week. See the preseason schedule below.

By the way, Matthew Wuest was the founder of CapGeek. He died in 2015 after a battle with colon cancer. So if the tournament doesn't mean too much, at least the trophy name does. Wuest made quite the impact in tracking NHL salaries and team caps. It's good to see him being recognized.

- Dave

Renaming the newsletter

I heard from a handful of you after my call-out for newsletter naming ideas. I need to hear from more of you, so please send me a note: dbartkowiak@wdiv.com | @DaveBartko ✍️

I received ideas such as "Wings in Flight," "Wingnuts," "Hockeytown Happenings" and some others that I didn't really like, at all. But keep them coming. Please get as creative as possible. Think about a brand.

Training camp, preseason schedule 📅

Training camp schedule:

• Friday, Sept. 13 -- 9:30 a.m. practice
• Saturday, Sept. 14 -- 9:30 a.m. practice
• Saturday, Sept. 14 -- 6 p.m. Alumni and Celebrity Game
• Sunday, Sept. 15 -- Red and White Game
• Monday, Sept. 16 -- 9:30 a.m. practice

Preseason schedule