Why the Red Wings Are Leaving Traverse City Behind
The team has held training camp up north for almost 30 years, but now they're taking it easy and staying home
The Detroit Red Wings have canceled the annual Traverse City 2026 training camp in favor of staying home at Little Caesar’s Arena in the Motor City.
The renewed collective bargaining agreement extended the regular season from 82 to 84 games, and shortened the preseason to 4 games, thereby trimming down training camp by a week.
The Red Wings official statement ending their nearly three-decade tradition of decamping to Michigan’s most famous northern destination mentioned only the upcoming season, but the current CBA is in effect for the next four years.
While citing the difficulties and expense of moving the entire team—including prospects and support staff—up into Traverse City for a smaller window of time, the Red Wings may have had other motivations too.
Red Wings training camp doesn’t have the same magnetism as Detroit Lions training camp in Allen Park, which pulls in thousands of fans from Metro Detroit, and hauling four hours up north and paying expensive hotel fees isn’t a hot prospect for most fans of the Winged Wheel.
Fans now understand that Chris Ilitch is an owner with an eye on his bottom line. Holding training camp at LCA with fan access may bolster attendance and increase merch and food and beverage revenue.
Also at play might be player demands as well. Several players live in Metro Detroit year-round, and for those with wives and children, it’s easier on the home front to drive into work as opposed to leaving their families for three weeks.
But there might be one other interesting reason for this change: Dylan Larkin’s trade request.
Steve Yzerman is a cautious and patient GM. His modus operandi is to wait and keep waiting until the (hopefully) perfect deal comes to him. It’s very likely Larkin remains on the Red Wing roster by the time the team heads into camp, and Yzerman may need to showcase him for other NHL teams.
Thousands of hours of tape on Larkin exists, but nobody buys sight unseen coming out of the off-season, and questions may need to be answered before All Star-level players or top picks get swapped for a player who will turn 30 before the start of the season. It’s a helluva lot more efficient for prospective GM’s to put eyes on Larkin in Detroit than fly into DTW and catch a second hopper to TC.
Still, this is a sad potential with the Cherry Capital and the Red Wings. The relationship between the team and TC was built on the legend of Gordie Howe who lived there for several years in retirement with his wife in the 1980s and 1990s.
Howe’s presence in Traverse City was so large they named their largest ice arena after him, and, legend has it, he was the first person to skate on its sheet.
Highly accessible to residents and fans, Howe was also part-owner of a restaurant in city for a period time operating under the name Gordie Howe’s Tavern & Eatery.
During the annual Red Wing training camps first started in 1997 by former coach Scotty Bowman, Howe was a constant presence. In his later years, Howe was forced to move back into the Metro Detroit area due to the hardships of frequently traveling down state.
Although the Red Wings have moved their camp back home to Detroit, the connection to the NHL continues. Several former NHL players continue to call Traverse City home, most notably former enforcer and 2016 All Star Game MVP John Scott, who hosts his popular podcast “Dropping the Gloves” from his residence—a must listen for obsessive NHL fans.
For the Detroit Red Wings in 2026, their training camp journey back to LCA may be one small quake before bigger tectonic shifts.
