2016 NHL Prospects Tournament: Schedule, Roster, How to Watch

2016 NHL Prospects Tournament
Sept. 16 - 20, 2016
Traverse City, MI
Stream: Red Wings website | FOXSportsGo app

For the last three seasons, Ron Francis and the Carolina Hurricanes management staff have set a course for drafting and developing future stars. Their talents will be on display this weekend in the annual Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan. New Charlotte Checkers head coach Ulf Samuelsson will get his first opportunity behind the bench in the Canes system, and he'll oversee a roster of 16 players drafted by Carolina (including three first-rounders), three players acquired via trades, two free agent signings, and three camp invitees.

The team arrived in Traverse City Wednesday and held their first practice Thursday afternoon. Headlining the forwards was a top line of big fellas: Nicolas Roy (6'4"), Hudson Elynuik (6'5") and Julien Gauthier (6'4"). Lucas Wallmark, Sergey Tolchinsky and Valentin Zykov skated as the second forward unit. On defense, Haydn Fleury and Roland McKeown will reprise their top pairing role, followed by Jake Bean and Josh Wesley.

Roster

(link to full roster including player bios)

Forwards

37 Warren Foegele
39 Valentin Zykov
44 Julien Gauthier
52 Hudson Elynuik
57 Andrew Poturalski
58 Nicolas Roy
59 Janne Kuokkanen
61 Sergey Tolchinsky
64 Clark Bishop
71 Lucas Wallmark
75 Spencer Smallman
78 Steven Lorentz
79 Mike Ferrantino

Defensemen

4 Haydn Fleury
24 Jake Bean
38 Josh Wesley
55 Roland McKeown
62 Alex Peters
82 Noah Carroll
84 Ben Gleason

Goaltenders

35 Alex Nedeljkovic
50 Jeremy Helvig
70 Callum Booth

Injured/Out of Tournament

19 Aleksi Saarela

Tournament Format

The field is comprised of eight NHL prospect teams divided into two divisions. Over the next four days, each team will play three round-robin games against divisional opponents. From there, each team will cross the division to play the rival team that matches its spot in the standings, with the two first-place teams facing off in the championship game Tuesday evening. The winner will take home the Matthew Wuest Memorial Cup, named in honor of the late founder of CapGeek who was instrumental in managing the tournament's statistics for many years.

Gordie Howe Division

Chicago Blackhawks
Columbus Blue Jackets
Detroit Red Wings
St. Louis Blues

Ted Lindsay Division

Carolina Hurricanes
Dallas Stars
Minnesota Wild
New York Rangers

Hurricanes Round Robin Games

Fri, Sept. 16,  Hurricanes (away) vs. Rangers (home),  4:00 pm
Sat, Sept. 17,  Wild (away) vs. Hurricanes (home),  7:00 pm
Mon, Sept. 19,  Stars (away) vs. Hurricanes (home),  6:30 pm

Finals Tuesday, Sept. 20

7th place game,  4th Howe (away) vs. 4th Lindsay,  3:00 pm
5th place game,  3rd Lindsay (away) vs. 3rd Howe (home),  3:30 pm
3rd place game,  2nd Howe (away) vs. 2nd Lindsay (home),  6:30 pm
Championship game,  1st Lindsay (away) vs. 1st Howe (home),  7:00 pm

Full game schedule for all teams

How to Watch

Subscribers of FOX Sports will be able to stream all the games online via the FOXSportsGo app. The hosting Red Wings are also making the games available for streaming via their website with no geographic restrictions.

Tournament Previews

Kevin LeBlanc published a terrific scouting report on all the teams for Dobber Hockey, and Canes webmaster Michael Smith has a rink report and preview and will be providing updates (example, watch Ulf Samuelsson mic'd up) from Traverse City during the tournament.

Last year, Jaccob Slavin was the tournament's breakout player, and the year before, Victor Rask. Who will break out this year? Feel free to use this as a discussion/open game thread over the next few days and stay tuned for updates along the way.