from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

On the eve of his third training camp in charge of the team he once captained, Steve Yzerman is excited.

Detroit Red Wings veterans, newcomers and prospects all have something to prove when practices begin Thursday at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City, where the Wings have held camp, save a few times, yearly since Scotty Bowman first took the defending Stanley Cup champions there in 1997.

Arguably no player carries more intrigue than Moritz Seider, the 6-foot-4 defenseman Yzerman grabbed in 2019, his first draft as general manager of the Wings. But there are others: Pius Suter, Nick Leddy, Jordan Oesterle and Alex Nedeljkovic, all off-season acquisitions, and prospects including Joe Veleno and Givani Smith.

“I think it makes for a more interesting training camp,” Yzerman said Wednesday. “I expect and hope the players all recognize, whether it’s Bobby Ryan coming on in a PTO, Givani Smith, Moritz Seider — you name them, they have a lot to play for and to have a good training camp and then to have a good preseason, and then ultimately once the regular season starts, to either hold their role or play an increased role. I think that’s good for us, I think that shows some progress. I hope our record is better than last year, but time will tell.

“Ultimately we have to get on the ice and see how it all plays out, but I am looking forward to watching all the new faces and see how the players in our organization that have been here respond to the opportunity to get a bigger role and to compete with some of the younger players or some of the new faces for the spots.”

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