Thoughts on Red Wings development camp and the current state of the Yzerplan

It was good to be in a rink on hot days in July.

NHL Development camps are one of the trickier things to cover.

It’s typically four or five days of players going through drills, with the final day being committed to a scrimmage or 3-on-3 tournament of some sort.

In the 24/7 hockey content machine, it’s gold in an otherwise sleepy summer.

But the stuff we see, the on-ice portion, is only the surface level. For some teams it’s completely unnecessary, which is why the Chicago Blackhawks completely ditched any on-ice activities at their development camp.

Development camps are more about the back-end prospect education. Teaching younger players how to eat and cook for themselves, getting some base-level medical scans on some players from Europe while they are in the NHL facility.

The off-ice growth, the Detroit Red Wings took the prospects to play paint ball for example, is hidden within the NHL machine.

Wouldn’t it be more interesting to read about how the paintball game played out that how a 19-year-old worked on his skating edges?

Alas, the Red Wings aren’t inviting me, or any media member, to the paintball game anytime soon. So we’ll have to chat about what we could see with our own eyes.

Amadeus Lombardi was the MVP of the 3-on-3 tournament. I’m not sure if they kept official stats, but he was easily the most impactful player throughout Wednesday morning, effectively leading his team to a 3-on-3 tournament championship.