Ken Holland held a press conference today announcing that the Winter Classic Alumni Game, set for late December that will be held at Comerica Park in Detroit Michigan, days before the rumored record-breaking Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium, will actually be split in to two games.
“We started out this process with the alumni game of trying to put together a roster of 23, 24, 25 players in Detroit.” Holland said Wednesday afternoon. “We reached out to Toronto and felt that we had so many players we wanted to bring out and honor as part of the alumni game. Toronto’s in the same situation, so we decided to have two games.”
With those estimates, as many as 100 former players could be participating in the two games at Comerica Park. Comerica Park and downtown Detroit will house many activities, including an AHL Winter Classic between the Toronto Marlies and the Grand Rapids Griffins. The annual Great Lakes Invitational will also be played outdoors at the Illitch owned Detroit Tigers stadium.
Details of how the games will be broken down remain to be seen, and Holland said they will be released at a later date.
Announced alumni for the Maple Leafs roster included:
Darryl Sittler (Former Leaf and Wing played from 1970-1985, set the record for most points scored in a game with 10)
Rick Vaive (Played from 1979-1992, first 50 goal scorer in Leafs history)
Wendel Clark (Former Leaf Captain and Wing for a year, played from 1985-2000)
Doug Gilmour (Former Leaf Captain, played from 1983-2003)
Dave Andreychuk (Played from 1982-2006, NHL all time Power-play goal leader)
Darcy Tucker (Played from 1995-2010)
Kevin Maguire (Played from 1984-1993, current referee)
Curtis Joseph (Played from 1989-2009, played for both Leafs and Wings, most career wins as a goalie without a Stanley Cup (454))
Felix Potvin (Played from 1991-2004)
Announced Red Wings alumni:
Coach: Scotty Bowman (Legendary Coach, active from 1967-2002)
Gordie Howe (Red Wings great, known for his ambidextrous shot and scoring prowess, active from 1946-1971)
Mickey Redmond (First Red Wing to score 50 goals, active from 1967-1975)
John Ogrodnick (Set a record for the Wings with 55 goals in one season, active from 1979-1993)
Luc Robitaille (LA Kings great won a cup in 2002 with the Wings, active from 1986-2006)
Dino Ciccarelli (Most goals scored by an draft eligible, undrafted player with 608. Played from 1980-1999)
Chris Chelios (Former Montreal/Chicago Captain and Ironman, active from 1983-2010)
Darren McCarty (Former Grind Line Red Wing player, active from 1992-2009)
Joey Kocur (Best known as half of the “Bruise Brothers” with Bob Probert, active from 1983-1999)
Chris Osgood (10th all-time in NHL Wins, active from 1992-2011)
Mike Vernon (Active from 1982-2002)
Kris Draper (Traded to Detroit from the Winnipeg Jets for $1. Played from 1989-2011)
Kirk Maltby (Former member of the “Grind Line”, active from 1992-2010)
Ted Lindsay (Founding member of the NHLPA, active from 1944-1960, 1964-1965)
Alex Delvecchio (2nd all time in games played with one team, active from 1950-1974)
Mark Howe (Former Hartford and Philadelphia great, noted for mentoring Nick Lidstrom, active from 1973-1995)
Larry Murphy (Former Leaf and Red Wing great, 5th all time in scoring for defensemen, active from 1980-2001)
