GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The 2022-2023 season is just days away for the Grand Rapids Griffins, and the team was on the ice for the first time Monday morning.
Many players have played together at some point in the last few weeks between practices in Detroit with the Red Wings or at training camp in Traverse City. Returning back to GR this season is left wing Jonatan Berggren, who was the leading points and assist scorer last season.
"I have high expectations for myself this year. Just ready to be better every day and hope we have a better season than we did last season," said Berggren.
New to the team is long time NHL player, Steven Kampfer, who came to the Detroit program from his second stint in Boston. Kampfer is an Ann Arbor native who played collegiately at the University of Michigan.
"It was a good first day of practice. Implementing systems and just getting things going for us moving forward. There's a lot of buzz around the Red Wings and around Grand Rapids here, so I think we're all just over the training camp aspect and want to get moving towards the regular season here," said Kampfer.
"Training camp is long. Going from Detroit to Traverse City, and now they're here, so it's a long two, three weeks up at training camp. And we kind of have our group now, so it's good to have four days to really iron out some kinks and get used to each other. And hopefully hit the ground running on Friday," said Ben Simon, head coach.
