Red Wings hope development camp eases transition for draft picks

Detroit — The draft picks have been selected and added to the pool of young players in the Red Wings' organization.Now it's time to begin showing them what professional hockey is all about.The Wings will host their annual development camp Monday through Thursday at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena.

The camp features on-ice skill development and NHL-level off-ice workouts each day from Wings development team coaches.Former Wings players Daniel Cleary and Niklas Kronwall, now both part of the development staff, handle most of the on-ice instruction.There is no evaluation of any sort.

This is about young players, in many cases 18- to 20-year-olds, learning about the next step in their hockey careers and what they have to do to reach their goals."We want to bring them in, enjoy it and give them an incredible amount of information, for on and off the ice," said Kris Draper, the Wings' director of amateur scouting. "If these guys have any questions throughout, we have, to me, the best development staff in the league, and they create relationships with everybody."

Whatever they need, we're here to help them maximize their potential."Players in attendance will take part in classes and presentations designed to help players transition to pro hockey. The importance of sleep, nutrition and dealing with media are classes usually covered.

Players also get feedback from Wings coaches and management on what prospects need to improve upon and how to improve in those given areas."What we want with these guys is basically give them as much information as possible," Draper said. "The importance of training on and off the ice.

They're going to get a full body analysis of how they move and what they need to do and what they need to improve on. This is the important time for hockey players. You have two to three months to train, so that's something that is very important."

Most of this past weekend's draft picks are expected to attend, including forwards J.P. Hurlbert