The Red Wings roster is highlighted by three recent first-round picks: center Joe Veleno (30th overall, 2018), who made his NHL debut with the Red Wings in 2020-21 and scored his first NHL goal on May 7 at Columbus after spending a majority of the season with the Swedish Hockey League's Malmo Redhawks, where he tallied 20 points (11-9-20) in 46 games; right wing Lucas Raymond (4th overall, 2020), who is beginning his first professional season in North America in 2021-22 after finishing second in the SHL among players aged 19-or-younger with 18 points (6-12-18) in 34 games with Frolunda, while tying for the team lead at the IIHF World Junior Championship with five points (2-3-5) in five games for Sweden; and goaltender Sebastian Cossa (15th overall, 2021), who authored one of the most dominant seasons in Western Hockey League history with the Edmonton Oil Kings in 2020-21, posting a 17-1-1 record, 1.57 goals-against average, 0.941 save percentage and four shutouts in 19 games.
Other roster notables include left wing Jonatan Berggren (33rd overall, 2018), who tied for sixth in SHL scoring and became the 13th player in league history to rack up 40-or-more points in a season at age 20-or-younger and a trio of defensemen looking to begin their first full professional seasons after all getting abbreviated stints in the American Hockey League in 2020-21: Jared McIsaac (36th overall, 2018), Donovan Sebrango (63rd overall, 2020) and recent Red Wings free agent addition Wyatt Newpower, who skated in 24 games with the AHL's Cleveland Monsters.
Fifteen of the 23 players on the roster are former Red Wings draft picks, with the three first-round picks in addition to three second-round picks, two third-round selections, one fourth-round pick, three fifth-round choices, two six-round picks and a seventh-round pick. The drafted prospects range in age from two 18-year olds chosen at the most recent 2021 NHL Entry Draft (Cossa and sixth-rounder Pasquale Zito) to 24-year-old Chase Pearson, a 2015 fifth-round pick who returns to the tournament after finishing third on the AHL's Grand Rapids Griffins with 22 points (8-14-22) in 28 games last season.
Over the tournament's history, 697 players have moved on to play in at least one NHL game, including 18 who played for the Red Wings in 2020-21: Tyler Bertuzzi, Alex Biega (Buffalo), Dennis Cholowski, Robby Fabbri (St. Louis), Valtteri Filppula, Darren Helm, Taro Hirose, Filip Hronek, Dylan Larkin, Gustav Lindstrom, Anthony Mantha, Patrik Nemeth (Dallas), Michael Rasmussen, Givani Smith, Marc Staal (NY Rangers), Evgeny Svechnikov, Joe Veleno and Filip Zadina.
