In recent years, preseason prospect tournaments have been nice little warm up to NHL training camps, and the light at the end of the tunnel signaling that the hockey season is about to arrive. As always our guys over at DobberProspects are going to be churning out content over the next couple weeks to prep for, keep you informed on and recap the prospect tournaments across the continent.

 

Today, I’ll provide a brief breakdown of the different tournaments, who are participating and who to watch.

 

Traverse City Tournament

Participating teams: Carolina Hurricanes, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues

Dates: September 8-12^th in Traverse City, MI

2016 Champion: Carolina Hurricanes

 

The most well-known and biggest of the prospect tournaments is in Traverse City, where eight teams split up into two divisions battle it out over four days for the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup.

 

The Hurricanes are the defending champions, and are the odds-on favorite to repeat with a roster including top prospects such as Haydn Fleury, Jake Bean, Julien Gauthier, Nicolas Roy, Janne Kuokkanen and Martin Necas. Detroit, who has a bit of a home team advantage given their proximity to the event has a solid entry with Evgeny Svechnikov, Dennis Cholowski and Michael Rasmussen headlining the “hometown” Red Wings. Finally, St. Louis brings a strong team, aided by first-round selections Tage Thompson, Robert Thomas and Klim Kostin, who are joined by fantasy relevant prospects like Jordan Kyrou and Jake Walman.

 

Others to watch for include: Alex DeBrincat (CHI), Pierre-Luc Dubois (CBJ), Gabriel Carlsson (CBJ), Denis Gurianov (DAL), Jason Robertson (DAL), Joel Eriksson Ek (MIN), Luke Kunin (MIN), Ivan Lodnia (MIN), Lias Andersson (NYR)

 

For rosters visit:

Carolina Hurricanes

 

Chicago Blackhawks

 

Columbus Blue Jackets

 

Dallas Stars

 

Detroit Red Wings

 

Minnesota Wild

 

New York Rangers

 

St Louis Blues

 

YoungStars Classic

Participating teams:, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets

Dates: September 8-11^th in Penticton, BC

 

A season ago, prospects such as Matthew Tkachuk, Matt Benning, Drake Caggiula, Jesse Puljujarvi, Troy Stecher and Kyle Connor used the Penticton event to springboard themselves to relevant NHL minutes in 2017.

 

This season, Calgary again looks to return a strong entry to the exhibition with names like Spencer Foo, Mark Jankowski, Rasmus Andersson and Juuso Valimaki eyeing roster spots in the near future. The showcase is incredibly strong in between the pipes, as Tyler Parsons (CGY), Mason McDonald (CGY), Stuart Skinner (EDM), Dylan Wells (EDM), Thatcher Demko (VAN) and Michael DiPietro (VAN) all should see time in goal.

 

Others to watch for include: Dillon Dube (CGY), Ethan Bear (EDM), Caleb Jones (EDM), Kailer Yamamoto (EDM), Tyler Benson (EDM), Olli Juolevi (VAN), Brock Boeser (VAN), Kole Lind (VAN), Janson Harkins (WPG), and Logan Stanley (WPG)

 

For rosters visit:

Calgary Flames

 

Edmonton Oilers

 

Vancouver Canucks

 

Winnipeg Jets

 

Prospect Tournament

Participating teams: Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils and Pittsburgh Penguins

Dates: September 8-11^th in Buffalo, NY

 

The prospect tournament being held in Buffalo is an interesting showcase of the different ways to build a prospect system. Clearly Pittsburgh’s system has been gutted over the last few season, but they have emerged with back-to-back Stanley Cups. A far cry from the rebuilding project in which New Jersey has been in the midst for the last couple seasons. Buffalo and Boston are two teams pushing for the playoffs, but at this point wouldn’t be classified as Stanley Cup contenders.

 

The headliner here is 2017 number one overall pick Nico Hischier as he gets into his first action with an eye towards making a difference at the NHL level this fall, but there are other top fantasy prospects such as Charlie McAvoy and Alex Nylander who are participating in the event.

 

Others to watch for include: Anders Bjork (BOS), Jake DeBrusk (BOS), Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson (BOS), Jakub Zboril (BOS), Vaclav Karabacek (BUF), Cliff Pu (BUF), Mike McLeod (NJD), Will Butcher (NJD), Blake Speers (NJD), Zach Aston-Reese (PIT) and Daniel Sprong (PIT)

 

For rosters visit:

Boston Bruins

 

Buffalo Sabres

 

New Jersey Devils

 

Pittsburgh Penguins

 

Rookie Tournament

Participating teams:, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs

Dates: September 8-10^th in Toronto, ON

 

The Rookie Tournament hosted by the Maple Leafs in Toronto, is an all-Canadian affair much like Penticton, with Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto sending their prospects group to the exhibition.

 

Toronto had one of the most successful seasons for a rookie group in some time, with Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner leading the club to a playoff berth in 2016-17. Also impressive is the amount of talent that the Leafs still have in their system as depth options behind their superstars. We will see a good amount of those players this week. Ottawa and Montreal don’t have the same amount of raw talent, but there are still some top-end players to be seen at Ricoh Coliseum.

 

Others to watch for include: Noah Juulsen (MTL), Victor Mete (MTL), Thomas Chabot (OTT), Logan Brown (OTT), Colin White (OTT), Timothy Liljegren (TOR), Carl Grundstrom (TOR), Travis Dermott (TOR), Jeremy Bracco (TOR)

 

For rosters visit:

Montreal Canadiens

 

Ottawa Senators

 

Toronto Maple Leafs

 

 

Panthers Rookie Tournament

Participating teams: Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals

Dates: September 9-12^th in Estero, FL (Cancelled)

 

Unfortunately, the Panthers rookie tournament had to be cancelled due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irma. Everyone in the southeastern United States, stay safe!

 

 

Prospect Showcase

Participating teams: Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche and San Jose Sharks

Dates: September 9-12^th in San Jose, CA

 

Finishing up the prospect tournament slate is a west coast affair, featuring the California teams (minus LA, who is playing a couple games against Las Vegas), Pacific Division rival Arizona, and a Central Division foe in Colorado.

 

Arizona has long sported one of the best prospect groups in hockey, a height that Colorado is looking to build towards. San Jose has often been able to promote from within organization, but their high-end prospect pool has been diminished in recent years with Cup runs and some misses on first rounders. Anaheim, although they rarely draft in the top-15, always seem to come away with NHL players despite drafting from the back half of the first round. 

 

Players to watch for include: Max Jones (ANA), Max Comtois (ANA), Sam Steel (ANA), Jacob Larsson (ANA), Dylan Strome (ARI), Clayton Keller (ARI), Christian Fischer (ARI), P-O Joseph (ARI), Kyle Wood (ARI), J.T. Compher (COL), Tyson Jost (COL), A.J. Greer (COL), Jeremy Roy (SJS), Rudolfs Balcers (SJS)

 

 

For rosters visit:

Anaheim Ducks

 

Arizona Coyotes

 

Colorado Avalanche

 

San Jose Sharks

 

 

Give Kevin a follow at @kleblanchockey for prospect talk and happenings.