2024 Development Camp Roster Number Notes

The Red Wings kicked off their summer Development Camp this week and, as has become their tradition, didn’t publicly announce jersey numbers for any of the attendees.

This has led to me scoring photos and videos from camp to try to assemble a full roster with numbers, only for George Malik of The Malik Report to post his Day One thoughts from camp with numbers included and save me from myself.  Malik couldn’t make it to camp this year but he still came through for me, forwarding a numbers-inclusive roster to fill in the gaps in the one I’d put together.

Look, jersey numbers are my thing, okay?

Caveat: Development camp jersey numbers are usually meaningless.  Some of these players are far enough out from appearing with the Red Wings that it’s impossible to know if another player will come along and take that number in the meantime.  That said, sometimes these numbers stick, and sometimes we can see trends and predict coming changes.  This year might be one of those years.

There are a handful of players returning to dev camp wearing the same number as they had last summer.  Brennan Ali keeps #56 (for now, as he’ll probably lose it to recent free agent signing Erik Gustafsson, and after it having been assigned to Matyas Melovsky in the Wings’ main camp last fall), Kevin Bicker keeps #89, Nate Danielson is back with #29 (which he also had in the Wings’ last main camp), Dylan James has #72 again (though it was assigned to Trenton Bliss for last fall’s camp), Shai Buium is back in #22 (which he got from Matt Luff, then gave back to Luff for the fall camp), Jack Phelan keeps #87, and Rudy Guimond is back in #68 (after Lukas Matecha had it in last fall’s camp).

Alexandre Doucet wore #37 last summer but he’s back with the #63 he had last fall after J.T. Compher took #37.  Similarly, Emmitt Finnie is back in the #64 he had last fall after losing #88 to Daniel Sprong (and then Patrick Kane).

Of players returning from the 2023 Development Camp, 14 have new numbers.

Liam Dower-Nilsson is on his third number with the Wings, wearing #32 after having #62 last summer and #88 the year before.  His brother, Noah, is #42 after wearing #83 last year.  Kienan Draper is on to his fourth number, having taken #11 after losing #34 to Alex Lyon last fall.  Maximilian Kilpinen has switched from the #64 taken by Finnie to the #83 abandoned by Noah Dower-Nilsson.  Owen Mehlenbacher is wearing #95 after having previously been assigned #79.  Redmond Savage follows in the footprints of Taro Hirose, switching from #67 to #25.  Sam Stange, having lost #63 to Doucet, picks up #58.  Brady Cleveland takes #62 from Wyatt Newpower, after having previously worn #73.  Anton Johansson gives #20 back to Albert Johansson and takes #61.  Larry Keenan gets the #79 from Mehlenbacher.  Cooper Moore has #70, having lost his previous #32 to Carter Mazur before it was assigned to Liam Dower-Nilsson.  Axel Sandin-Pellikka gets a big-kid number, going from #84 to #24.  Trey Augustine goes from #80 to #60

Additionally, try-out goalie Andrew Oke returns from the 2022 Development Camp having switched from #31 to the #47 formerly belonging to James Reimer and Kyle Aucoin is wearing #75 after wearing #55 in 2022.

Of those making their first appearance in Dev Camp, there aren’t many surprises.  Recently-drafted Austin Baker picked up #17 from Daniel Sprong.  Ondrej Beecher got the #41 of Shayne Gostisbehere.  Griffins signee Hunter Johannes was given the #21 of Austin Czarnik.  Max Plante took the #26 formerly assigned to the since-traded Andrew Gibson.  Michael Brandsegg-Nygard got #28, Charlie Forslund got #44, and signee Jakub Rychlovsky got #81, none of which were assigned last year.  Fisher Scott got #66, which is rarely assigned in Detroit camps for some reason, while John Whipple got the previously-unassigned #49.

Another rarely-assigned number making an appearance is the #30 worn by invitee goalie Sebastian Gatto.

The rule of thumb for camp jersey numbers seems to be that – in addition to retired numbers – numbers assigned to players who were already under contract the season before the camp and were not set to become a free agent that summer are unavailable.  This is how Justin Solovey could be assigned the #36 worn last season (and presumably next season) by Christian Fischer.  Additionally, camp goalies often get numbers like #68 and #80 rather than allowing them to take #30.

This year, Liam Dower-Nilsson having #32 is interesting because it was assigned to Carter Mazur last year and he’s still under contract.  This could mean he’s switching.  If so, I’d guess he’s going to #43.  Mazur has worn #43 and #34 in the past in honor of Darren Helm.  He had #43 in his first two development camps but switched to #32 last summer between Development Camp and the Prospects Tournament.

Or it could be nothing.

The full roster is as follows:

Forwards

Num.	Name
56	Brennan Ali
17	Austin Baker
41	Ondrej Becher
89	Kevin Bicker
28	Michael Brandsegg-Nygard
29	Nate Danielson
63	Alexandre Doucet
32	Liam Dower-Nilsson
42	Noah Dower-Nilsson
11	Kienan Draper
59	Brayden Edwards*
98	Dylan Edwards*
64	Emmitt Finnie
44	Charlie Forslund
72	Dylan James
21	Hunter Johannes+
83	Maximilian Kilpinen
76	Cy LeClerc*
67	Chase Lefebvre*
95	Owen Mehlenbacher
97	Ross Mitton*
65	Charlie Paquette*
26	Max Plante
81	Jakub Rychlovsky
25	Redmond Savage
82	Gabriel Seger+
36	Justin Solovey*
58	Sam Stange
57	Borya Valis*

Defensemen

 

Num.	Name
75	Kyle Aucoin
73	David Breazeale*
22	Shai Buium
62	Brady Cleveland
61	Anton Johansson
94	Marcus Kearsey*
79	Larry Keenan
70	Cooper Moore
87	Jack Phelan
24	Axel Sandin-Pellikka
66	Fisher Scott
15	Blake Smith*
86	Trevor Taulien*
49	John Whipple

Goalies

Num.	Name
60	Trey Augustine
80	Albin Boija*
45	Kristoffer Eberly*
30	Sebastian Gatto*
68	Rudy Guimond
31	Landon Miller
47	Andrew Oke*