Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
What a 12 months.
The arrival of 2026 will carry the second half of the AHL’s ninetieth anniversary season, an out of doors sport in Minnesota, the Rockford IceHogs internet hosting the AHL All-Star Traditional, after which two-month gauntlet that’s the Calder Cup Playoffs.
As 2025 involves an in depth, here’s a look again at one of the memorable years in AHL historical past.
Abbotsford Canucks elevate the Calder Cup for the primary timeThe Calder Cup got here west for the primary time because the Canucks pulled out a 3-2 win at Charlotte in Sport 6 of the Calder Cup Finals on June 23. It was the primary Calder Cup title for a Vancouver Canucks affiliate.
They grew to become the primary Pacific Division group to win the Calder Cup for the reason that AHL expanded to the west coast in 2015. Abbotsford overcame a middling midseason report to go on a 30-9-1-1 tear down the stretch and qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs. From there, they eradicated the Tucson Roadrunners, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Colorado Eagles and Texas Stars to achieve the Finals beneath rookie head coach Manny Malhotra.
Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs led the best way for Abbotsford, going 16-7 with a 2.01 goals-against common, a .931 save proportion and 5 shutouts to win the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as probably the most invaluable participant of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Montreal Canadiens prospects discover successYou’d have to return greater than 30 years to see the final time a Montreal Canadiens affiliate completed first general within the AHL through the common season.
That’s till final April, when the Laval Rocket captured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy because the 2024-25 regular-season champion with a 48-19-3-2 report. It was the primary time {that a} full Habs affiliate received a regular-season title for the reason that 1991-92 Fredericton Canadiens.
The Rocket eradicated the Cleveland Monsters and Rochester Individuals to advance to the Japanese Convention Finals earlier than falling to Charlotte. And so they have once more emerged as one of many high contenders this season with a North Division-best 20-10-0-1 mark.
One other Milwaukee-Texas showdownIf it’s springtime, it have to be time for the Milwaukee Admirals and Texas to conflict within the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The groups met for the third consecutive postseason with a five-game Central Division Finals traditional. They alternated wins by way of the primary 4 video games earlier than Texas took the deciding Sport 5 with a 3-2 street victory. AHL rookie of the 12 months Justin Hryckowian scored with 5:05 to go in regulation to safe the sequence.
Texas had come up quick in playoff sequence in opposition to Milwaukee in 2023 and 2024 that every went a full 5 video games.
Marco Sturm off to BostonThree stable seasons with the Ontario Reign arrange head coach Marco Sturm for his subsequent transfer within the teaching career.
That decision got here June 5 when the Boston Bruins named Sturm their new head coach. With Ontario, the place he had gone 119-80-11-6, Sturm accomplished a powerful climb to the NHL. That journey additionally featured stints with the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach in addition to worldwide expertise with Germany’s males’s nationwide program that included profitable the silver medal on the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Todd Nelson strikes on to the NHLAfter back-to-back Calder Cup titles and shifting gamers as much as the Washington Capitals, Todd Nelson’s moved on from the Hershey Bears when he took a suggestion from the Pittsburgh Penguins to hitch them as an assistant coach June 20.
Nelson’s 450 regular-season teaching wins rank him fifth in AHL historical past, and 141 of them got here in Hershey. He completed with a .704 factors proportion, tops in Hershey historical past. He additionally received the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award because the AHL’s most excellent coach in 2023-24.
Nelson has received the Calder Cup 3 times as a head coach to go together with his 1994 title as a participant and a follow-up in 2008 as an assistant coach.
AHL head coaches shifting upNelson and Sturm weren’t the lone AHL head coaches to get the NHL name, both.
Neil Graham of Texas joined the mother or father Dallas Stars as an assistant coach after main their AHL affiliate for elements of six seasons. In Colorado, it was Eagles mainstay Aaron Schneekloth shifting on to the Seattle Kraken to grow to be an assistant coach there in his first NHL alternative. Calgary Wranglers head coach Trent Cull, who had spent a part of final season as an interim assistant coach with the Calgary Flames, had that NHL position made everlasting as effectively.
Grand Rapids has a record-breaking startWhile way more historical past could possibly be made by the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2026, they made 2025 a fairly particular 12 months, too.
The group closed out 2025 with a exceptional report of 26-1-1-1, together with a 15-game profitable streak that was snapped in an extra time loss to Milwaukee on New 12 months’s Eve. They hit the 50-point mark quicker than any group in AHL historical past, they usually have but to lose in regulation on the street this season (13-0-0-1). Dan Watson’s membership has already constructed a 19-point lead on high of the Central Division earlier than the season has even reached its midway level.
What is going to 2026 carry for the Griffins as they search their third Calder Cup championship?
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
