Like every Detroit Red Wings prospect, Jordan Sambrook is looking forward to the day he finally gets to begin his professional career.

But at the same time, Sambrook isn't exactly disappointed that he'll be returning to junior hockey for one more season.

He still has some unfinished business to take care of in the junior ranks.

Sambrook helped the Erie Otters reach the Memorial Cup Final last season before they fell short of winning junior hockey's biggest prize. But with many of the players on that team eligible to return for at least one more season, the outlook for 2017-18 is good.

So Sambrook, who was drafted by the Red Wings in the fifth round (137th overall) of the 2016 NHL draft, will be returning to Erie with the hope that he can experience another big season with the Otters, who won won the J. Ross Robertson Cup as OHL champions before losing 4-3 to host Windsor in the Memorial Cup championship game.

"It was really cool," said Sambrook, 19. "Windsor was a great host there. The whole couple weeks was huge for us and the experience I gained from that was definitely good for my game."

The 6-foot-2, 193-pound defenseman played a key role for Erie both during the regular season and in the playoffs.

In 61 regular-season games, he had 15 goals, 25 assists and a plus-38 rating. All of those numbers were up from the previous season and his plus-minus rating was second among Erie defensemen.

He had two multi-goal games while recording multi-point games in seven others.

In 22 playoff games, Sambrook scored five goals, had five assists and was plus-13. That was after failing to score a goal while compiling a minus-4 playoff rating during the 2016 playoffs.

When the Red Wings drafted Sambrook, they liked his size, skating ability and two-way game. He credited a couple of things for his increased offensive output during his second OHL season.

"More opportunity but I think mostly my confidence and experience," he said during this month's development camp in Traverse City. "First year, I was coming into the league trying to get know things, see how everybody played.

"It was a tougher game obviously than what I was playing before that. But my experience and confidence was a big factor. I have a lot of confidence and I just want to continue to improve."

Helping the Otters score more goals was a big reason Sambrook's plus-minus rating improved but he's also proud of the defensive strides he made as Erie won its second straight regular-season championship.

He helped the Otters allow a league-low 182 goals in 68 games.

"I think my defensive game has come along," Sambrook said. "I worked really hard after practice this year, I always do different drills to improve my stick or improve my body positioning.

"So that's one thing I want to continue to work on but I think that's come a long way."

His individual goals this year are to improve his skating, increase his strength and add a few pounds before embarking on a pro career, perhaps as early as next spring unless Erie makes another long playoff run.

The Red Wings have several promising young players in the organization and Sambrook hopes to join that group although he has yet to sign an entry level contract.

Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, Andreas Athanasiou are already NHL regulars despite not having celebrated their 23rd birthdays.

The Grand Rapids Griffins won the Calder Cup with a roster that included 2015 first-round pick Evgeny Svechnikov, defenseman Joe Hicketts and playoff MVP Tyler Bertuzzi, who is expected to play for the Red Wings this season.

Prospects who will begin their first pro seasons this year include defensemen Filip Hronek, Vili Saarijarvi and 2016 first-round pick Dennis Cholowski.

The college ranks will include defenseman Patrick Holway, goaltender Keith Petruzzelli and forward David Pope, who were all drafted since 2013.

And recent draft picks who will be joining Sambrook in juniors include 2016 second-round pick Givani Smith and 2017 top pick Michael Rasmussen.

The thought of being part of that group appeals to Sambrook.

"It's really exciting," he said. "Obviously I want to work hard every single day. I want to be up in Grand Rapids and eventually make the Detroit Red Wings so I'm working every single day to achieve that goal. It's definitely exciting.

"Obviously I'm tall but I'm pretty lean where most (defensemen) now are close to 200 pounds ... I'm only about 190. So I want to get up to that 200 mark and get stronger to win battles."