Wings Announce 2024 Prospect Games Roster

The Red Wings announced their roster for this year’s Prospects Tournament pair of prospects games against the Dallas Stars earlier today.

It all starts September 14th! 🙌

💻 » https://t.co/0fLo0qPVHP pic.twitter.com/HCO4SGB3Er

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 3, 2024

I have capital-O opinions about the state of the Prospects Tournament that I’m not ready to put into words so, for now, here’s a look at the jersey number breakdown…

A few things to note about Prospects Tournament Games rosters: The first is that these numbers rarely change as players transition into the main camp but sometimes it does happen. This means it’s safe to assume any number assigned here won’t go to someone else in the main camp.  The second is that only ten of these players are actually in the Red Wings’ pipeline.  Everyone else is an invitee of some kind or another and may never be back in a Red Wings’ jersey, so we can’t assume that a free agent being assigned a number means the previous owner – if he’s still in the Detroit organization – won’t get that number back later.  Finally, players in the Detroit pipeline usually keep the numbers they had at Development Camp unless a free agent signee requested that number.

That’s why Emmitt Finnie switching from the #64 he wore in Development Camp earlier this summer to #58 is kind of interesting.  It’s his third number with the organization as he attended his first development camp last year wearing #88.  Invitee Zach Sandhu has #64 for the Prospects Games, so it doesn’t look like anyone higher up on the food chain of the Detroit organization took it from Finnie.  It’s just a random mid-summer switch which, if it sticks, will impact Sam Stange as Stange most-recently had #58.

The other changes for players in the Detroit pipeline are all in goal.

Landon Miller had worn #31 in Development Camp this year but Carter Gylander – who wore it in last summer’s Development Camp – has re-claimed it. This pushes Miller to #61, which I’m not sure we’ve seen a goalie wear, even in camp. Summer acquisition Gage Alexander gets #68, a commonly-assigned camp goalie number.

Griffins-signee Hunter Johannes has #25 now after the #21 he wore in July has been assigned to Joe Snively.

Three free agent invitees are wearing different numbers than they did at Development Camp.  Dylan Edwards switches from #98 to #49 (worn in Dev Camp by John Whipple), Marcus Kearsey goes from #94 to #89 (previously assigned to Kevin Bicker), and Blake Smith gets #95 with the #15 he previously wore now assigned to Sheldon Dries.

The full roster is as follows:

Forwards

Defensemen

Goalies