Grand Rapids Griffins forwards Justin Abdelkader, Cory Emmerton and Mattias Ritola are among four Detroit Red Wings prospects featured in the next installment of Fox Sports Detroit’s “Under the Lights” series.
“Under the Lights: Red Wings Prospect Camp – Living the Dream” chronicles this trio and Detroit’s 2008 first-round draft pick, Thomas McCollum, through every moment of the Red Wings’ September prospect camp in Traverse City.
The episode premieres next Thursday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. A preview can be viewed here.
The Fox Sports Detroit cameras and microphones followed the players through fitness tests, team meetings, practices and games. Fox Sports Detroit was granted unprecedented access to the prospects, general manager Ken Holland, assistant GM Jim Nill and head coach Mike Babcock, as well as the players and coaches that keep the Red Wings’ winning tradition on course. The show takes an inside look at how the player evaluation process works with a rare, unfiltered glimpse of how personnel decisions are made.
Through interviews with Holland, Nill, Griffins head coach Curt Fraser, player development director Jiri Fischer and others, viewers find out what is expected from prospects as they progress through the organization. Each of the four featured players describes how he strives to live up to the expectations and embrace a whole new way of playing in the professional ranks.
Each player has his own story: from the teenage rookie goalie (McCollum); to the speedy forward (Emmerton) coming off a season of injuries; to the college hero (Abdelkader) looking to play for the team he cheered as a kid; to his Swedish linemate (Ritola), whose countrymen have made the winged wheel as popular in Stockholm as it is in Motown.
This show and all of Fox Sports Detroit’s coverage of the Red Wings is available to 3.2 million cable and satellite households throughout Michigan and portions of Northwest Ohio and Northern Indiana. FS Detroit is also available on DirecTV (channel 663) and the Dish Network (channel 430).
