Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
What a year.
The arrival of 2026 will bring the second half of the AHL’s 90th anniversary season, an outdoor game in Minnesota, the Rockford IceHogs hosting the AHL All-Star Classic, and then two months later the Calder Cup Playoffs.
As 2025 comes to a close, here’s a look back at one of the most memorable years in AHL history.
The Abbotsford Canucks lift the Calder trophy for the first time
The Calder Cup came west for the first time as the Canucks pulled out a 3-2 victory in Charlotte in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals on June 23. It was the first Calder Cup title for the Vancouver Canucks franchise.
They became the first Pacific Division team to win the Calder Cup since the AHL expanded to the west coast in 2015. Abbotsford overcame its midseason record to finish 30-9-1-1 and qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs. From there, they took out the Tucson Roadrunners, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Colorado Eagles and Texas Stars to reach the finals under the head coach. Manny Malhotra.
Goalkeeper Artūrs Šilovs led the way for Abbotsford, going 16-7 with a 2.01 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and five shutouts to win the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Montreal Canadiens prospects find success
You’d have to go back more than 30 years to see the last time a Montreal Canadiens affiliate finished first in the AHL during the regular season.
That is until last April, when the Laval Rocket took home the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the 2024-25 regular season champion with a record of 48-19-3-2. It was the first time a full Habs franchise had won a regular season title since the 1991-92 Fredericton Canadiens.
The Rockets eliminated the Cleveland Monsters and Rochester Americans to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals before falling to Charlotte. They also emerged as one of the top contenders this season with a North Division-best 20-10-0-1 mark.
Another Milwaukee-Texas rivalry
If it’s spring time, it should be time for the Milwaukee Admirals and Texas to clash in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The teams met for the third consecutive postseason five-game Central Division Finals. They traded wins over the first four games before Texas took Game 5 with a 3-2 road victory. AHL rookie of the year Justin Hryckowian scored at 5:05 to go in regulation to secure the streak.
Texas came up short in playoff series against Milwaukee in 2023 and 2024 when they each played five full games.
Marco Sturm goes to Boston
Three solid seasons with the Ontario Reign established the head coach Marco Sturm about his next step in the coaching career.
That call came on June 5 when the Boston Bruins named Sturm their new coach. With Ontario, where he went 119-80-11-6, Sturm completed a remarkable climb to the NHL. That journey also included the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach and international experience with the German national program including winning a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Todd Nelson is moving on to the NHL
After back-to-back Calder Cup titles and moving players up to the Washington Capitals, Todd NelsonHe left the Hershey Bears when he received an offer from the Pittsburgh Penguins to join them as an assistant coach on June 20.
Nelson’s 450 regular season wins rank fifth in AHL history, with 141 of them coming in Hershey. He finished with a .704 hitting percentage, the highest in Hershey history. He also won the Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s top coach in 2023-24.
Nelson has won the Calder Cup three times as a coach to go with his 1994 title as a player and a follow-up in 2008 as an assistant coach.
AHL head coaches are stepping up
Nelson and Sturm weren’t the first AHL head coaches to get the NHL call, either.
Neil Graham from Texas joined the parent Dallas Stars as an assistant coach after leading their AHL organization for parts of six seasons. In Colorado, it was a mainstay for the Eagles Aaron Schneekloth moving on to the Seattle Kraken to become an assistant coach there for his first NHL opportunity. Head coach of the Calgary Wranglers Trent Cullwho spent part of last season as an interim assistant coach for the Calgary Flames, also had his NHL role made permanent.
Grand Rapids is off to a record breaking start
While a lot of history could be made by the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2026, they made 2025 a great year.
The team closed out 2025 with an impressive 26-1-1-1 record, including a 15-game hitting streak in a New Year’s loss to Milwaukee. They have scored 50 points faster than any team in AHL history, and are still undefeated on the road this season (13-0-0-1). Dan WatsonThe club is already 19 points clear at the top of the Central Division before the season is even halfway through.
What will 2026 bring for the Griffins as they seek their third Calder Cup championship?
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
