Patrick Williams, TheAHL.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-month gauntlet that is the Calder Cup Playoffs.
As 2025 comes to a close, here is a look back at one of the most memorable years in AHL history.
Abbotsford Canucks lift the Calder Cup for the first time
The Calder Cup came west for the first time as the Canucks pulled out a 3-2 win at Charlotte in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Finals on June 23. It was the first Calder Cup title for a Vancouver Canucks affiliate.
They became the first Pacific Division team to win the Calder Cup since the AHL expanded to the west coast in 2015. Abbotsford overcame a middling midseason record to go on a 30-9-1-1 tear down the stretch and qualify for the Calder Cup Playoffs. From there, they eliminated the Tucson Roadrunners, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Colorado Eagles and Texas Stars to reach the Finals under rookie head coach Manny Malhotra.
Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs led the way for Abbotsford, going 16-7 with a 2.01 goals-against average, a .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 overall in the AHL during the regular season.
That is until last April, when the Laval Rocket captured the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the 2024-25 regular-season champion with a 48-19-3-2 record. It was the first time that a full Habs affiliate won a regular-season title since the 1991-92 Fredericton Canadiens.
The Rocket eliminated the Cleveland Monsters and Rochester Americans to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals before falling to Charlotte. And they have again emerged as one of the top contenders this season with a North Division-best 20-10-0-1 mark.
Another Milwaukee-Texas showdown
If it’s springtime, it must be time for the Milwaukee Admirals and Texas to clash in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
The teams met for the third consecutive postseason with a five-game Central Division Finals classic. They alternated wins through the first four games before Texas took the deciding Game 5 with a 3-2 road victory. AHL rookie of the year Justin Hryckowian scored with 5:05 to go in regulation to secure the series.
Texas had come up short in playoff series against Milwaukee in 2023 and 2024 that each went a full five games.
Marco Sturm off to Boston
Three solid seasons with the Ontario Reign set up head coach Marco Sturm for his next move in the coaching profession.
That call came June 5 when the Boston Bruins named Sturm their new head coach. With Ontario, where he had gone 119-80-11-6, Sturm completed an impressive climb to the NHL. That journey also featured stints with the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach as well as international experience with Germany’s men’s national program that included winning the silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Todd Nelson moves on to the NHL
After back-to-back Calder Cup titles and moving players up to the Washington Capitals, Todd Nelson’s moved on from the Hershey Bears when he took an offer from the Pittsburgh Penguins to join them as an assistant coach June 20.
Nelson’s 450 regular-season coaching wins rank him fifth in AHL history, and 141 of them came in Hershey. He finished with a .704 points percentage, tops in Hershey history. He also won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s most outstanding coach in 2023-24.
Nelson has won the Calder Cup three times as a head coach to go with his 1994 title as a player and a follow-up in 2008 as an assistant coach.
AHL head coaches moving up
Nelson and Sturm were not the lone AHL head coaches to get the NHL call, either.
Neil Graham of Texas joined the parent Dallas Stars as an assistant coach after leading their AHL affiliate for parts of six seasons. In Colorado, it was Eagles mainstay Aaron Schneekloth moving on to the Seattle Kraken to become an assistant coach there in his first NHL opportunity. Calgary Wranglers head coach Trent Cull, who had spent part of last season as an interim assistant coach with the Calgary Flames, had that NHL role made permanent as well.
Grand Rapids has a record-breaking start
While much more history could be made by the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2026, they made 2025 a pretty special year, too.
The team closed out 2025 with a remarkable record of 26-1-1-1, including a 15-game winning streak that was snapped in an overtime loss to Milwaukee on New Year’s Eve. They hit the 50-point mark faster than any team in AHL history, and they have yet to lose in regulation on the road this season (13-0-0-1). Dan Watson’s club has already built a 19-point lead on top of the Central Division before the season has even reached its halfway point.
What will 2026 bring for the Griffins as they seek their third Calder Cup championship?
