Red Wings to host 2026 development camp at Little Caesars Arena

Detroit’s 2026 development camp will give the organization its first hard look at which prospects are closest to Grand Rapids when the group opens Monday at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena. The four-day session runs through Thursday, July 2, and the Red Wings are dividing the skaters into Team Howe and Team Lindsay while they work through daily on-ice instruction, skill development, NHL-level off-ice workouts and presentations.

The roster will be announced Sunday, June 28, and it is expected to be built mostly around recent draft picks, signed free agents and invitees from college, junior and European leagues. That mix makes the week less about final answers than about sorting. Detroit is using the camp as an early checkpoint for prospects trying to move toward the AHL picture, where the road gets narrower and the expectations become more specific.

Media access will be limited to on-ice sessions, but the schedule still points to what the Red Wings want refined before any player can credibly push for the Griffins. Testing, skill blocks and team sessions will run each day, and the format is built to mirror a pro routine rather than a showcase weekend. For a prospect pool spread across multiple levels, that matters as much as the skating itself. The club wants to see who can absorb information quickly, handle a workload and carry it into the next practice block.

Last year’s camp offered a useful snapshot of the standard. Detroit brought 31 players through four days at the same BELFOR Training Center, and assistant director of player development Dan Cleary said the setting helps young players get comfortable around Little Caesars Arena, the trainers, the therapists and each other. The week also gave prospects such as Trey Augustine, Carter Bear, Eddie Genborg and Michael Brandsegg-Nygård a first sustained look at the habits Detroit wants repeated once the summer turns to training camp.

That Grand Rapids connection is the real pressure point behind this week. Detroit and the Griffins extended their affiliation agreement through at least the 2026-27 season, keeping the AHL club at the center of the organization’s development pipeline. On April 16, Detroit assigned Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, Carter Mazur, Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Dominik Shine to Grand Rapids, a reminder that development camp is only the first filter before players reach the Griffins roster.

The organization will get even more evaluation time later this summer, when Detroit hosts a four-team Prospect Tournament at the BELFOR Training Center from Sept. 12-15 and main training camp from Sept. 17-20. The Red Wings also have home preseason games scheduled at Little Caesars Arena on Sept. 24 and Sept. 26, giving the club another round of decisions before the AHL season picture comes into focus.