AHL’s historic ninetieth season opens tonight

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League opens its historic ninetieth season of play tonight, kicking off Opening Weekend introduced by FloHockey with eight video games on the Friday schedule.

All 32 golf equipment will play 72 video games throughout a 2025-26 common season that may run by April 19. From there, 23 groups will qualify for postseason play, with 5 rounds of playoffs resulting in the crowning of the 2026 Calder Cup champion. The postseason area will embrace six of eight groups from the Atlantic Division, 5 of seven in each the North and Central Divisions, and 7 of 10 within the Pacific.

Through the 2024-25 season, 87.0 % of all NHL gamers had been graduates of the American Hockey League, together with Vezina Trophy and Hart Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets; Artwork Ross Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning; three-time Stanley Cup champion Carter Verhaeghe of the Florida Panthers; and 2024-25 top-10 scorers Leon Draisaitl, David Pastrnak and Kyle Connor. Final season, a complete of 891 AHL alumni performed within the Nationwide Hockey League together with 330 who skated in each leagues final yr alone.

There have been additionally 245 former first- and second-round NHL draft picks who performed within the AHL final season, together with standouts corresponding to 2024-25 AHL Prime Prospects Staff members Dalibor Dvorsky, Bradly Nadeau, Scott Morrow, Konsta Helenius and Logan Mailloux, in addition to Artyom Levshunov, David Reinbacher, Nate Danielson, Simon Nemec, David Jiříček, Kevin Korchinski, Marco Kasper, Matthew Savoie, Conor Geekie, Denton Mateychuk, Frank Nazar, Noah Östlund, Joakim Kemell, Lian Bichsel, Liam Öhgren, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Owen Pickering, Filip Bystedt, Jiří Kulich, Maveric Lamoureux, Brad Lambert and Calder Cup champions  Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Danila Klimovich, Aatu Räty and Jett Woo.

In 2025-26, 21 of the NHL’s 32 head coaches had been AHL bench bosses earlier of their careers. Marco Sturm takes over the bench for the Boston Bruins following three seasons on the helm of the AHL’s Ontario Reign, and Jeff Blashill turns into the sixth energetic NHL head coach to have gained the Calder Cup as he begins main the Chicago Blackhawks.

Across the AHL, 9 head teaching modifications have been made because the finish of final season.

Calgary’s Brett Sutter, Colorado’s Mark Letestu, Lehigh Valley’s John Snowden, Ontario’s Andrew Lord, Rockford’s Jared Nightingale and Texas’ Toby Petersen will all be seeking to duplicate what Abbotsford’s Manny Malhotra completed in 2024-25 – win the Calder Cup of their first season as an AHL head coach. They’re joined as newcomers by Bridgeport’s Rocky Thompson, Hershey’s Derek King and Iowa’s Greg Cronin.

The Rockford IceHogs will host the 2026 AHL All-Star Traditional introduced by BMO. The AHL All-Star Expertise Competitors will happen on Tuesday, February 10, adopted by the AHL Corridor of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, February 11 and the three-on-three, round-robin 2026 AHL All-Star Problem that night.

Since 1995, greater than 94 % of All-Star Traditional individuals have gone on to compete within the Nationwide Hockey League, together with Drake Batherson, Jordan Binnington, Michael Carcone, John Carlson, Brandt Clarke, Thatcher Demko, Lukas Dostal, Ryker Evans, Thomas Harley, Connor Hellebuyck, Joel Hofer, Tristan Jarry, Jordan Kyrou, Jonathan Marchessault, Jacob Markstrom, J.T. Miller, Brandon Montour, William Nylander, Kyle Palmieri, Mikko Rantanen, Dylan Strome, Tyler Toffoli, Linus Ullmark, Vitek Vanecek, Dustin Wolf and Mats Zuccarello.

AHLTV on FloHockey (flohockey.television) options reside streaming of each AHL recreation in excessive definition on desktop, laptop computer, pill and cellular gadgets, in addition to by the FloSports app and related gadgets corresponding to Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Hearth TV and Chromecast.

FloHockey subscriptions are priced at $29.99 USD ($39.99 CAD) per 30 days when billed month-to-month, or save 58 % with a full-year subscription. And FloHockey consists of entry to not simply each regular-season and Calder Cup Playoff contest for all 32 American Hockey League groups but in addition greater than 21,000 hockey contests on FloHockey together with all different reside occasion streams and replays throughout FloSports. FloHockey helps these occasions with a sturdy AHL content material technique that options award-winning editorial and video content material all year long.

The AHL’s positioning in social media additionally continues to develop, and the league’s feeds on Instagram (theahl), Fb (fb.com/theahl), X (@TheAHL), Threads (@TheAHL) and Bluesky (@theahl.com) stay nice sources for breaking AHL information, particular provides, behind-the-scenes insights and fan interplay. The AHL communications division additionally maintains information feeds on X (@AHLPR) and Bluesky (@ahlpr.bsky.social).

The AHL’s digital properties are anchored by the league’s official web site, theahl.com, which is totally appropriate with desktop, cellular and pill gadgets alike. As well as, the official AHL cellular app is accessible without cost for iPhone and Android gadgets.

The 2025-26 AHL Information & File E book shall be out there for viewing and obtain within the coming days at theahl.com/mediaguide. The AHL Rule E book will be discovered at theahl.com/guidelines.

In operation since 1936, the American Hockey League serves as the highest growth league for the gamers, coaches, managers, executives, broadcasters and workers of all 32 Nationwide Hockey League groups. Practically 90 % of right this moment’s NHL gamers are American Hockey League graduates, and greater than 100 honored members of the Hockey Corridor of Fame hung out within the AHL of their careers.