SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League announced today that Sebastian Cossa and Michal Postava of the Grand Rapids Griffins have won the Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award for the 2025-26 season. Since 1972, the award has been presented to the goaltender(s) on the team which allows the fewest goals per game in the regular season.
To qualify for the award, a goaltender must have appeared in at least one-third of his team’s games.
The Griffins allowed a league-low 159 goals in 2025-26, an average of 2.21 per game. This is the first Holmes Award for Grand Rapids since they won back-to-back in 2001-02 and 2002-03.
Cossa, a fourth-year pro and 2021 first-round draft pick by the Detroit Red Wings, posted a record of 26-8-4 with a 2.33 goals-against average and .915 save percentage, both career bests. The 23-year-old native of Hamilton, Ont., ranked third in the AHL in victories and second with five shutouts. Postava, in his first year of play in North America, made 25 appearances for Grand Rapids and went 17-6-0 with a 1.71 GAA, a .937 save percentage and four shutouts, never allowing more than three goals in a single game. A 24-year-old from Czechia, Postava signed with Detroit as a free agent on June 10, 2025.
Cossa and Postava were among five goaltenders to appear in a game for the Griffins this season, joining Carter Gylander, Dustin Tokarski and Trey Augustine.
The Harry “Hap” Holmes Memorial Award, which was first awarded in 1948 to the goaltender with the best goals-against average in the AHL, is named for Hockey Hall of Famer Harry “Hap” Holmes, a prominent figure in early professional hockey and an outstanding goaltender of his time. Previous winners or co-winners of the award include Gil Mayer (1951, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56), Johnny Bower (1957, ’58), Marcel Paille (1961, ’62), Gerry Cheevers (1965), Gilles Villemure (1969, ’70), Pete Peeters (1979), Pelle Lindbergh (1981), Clint Malarchuk (1983), Vincent Riendeau (1987, ’88), Corey Hirsch (1993), Olaf Kolzig (1994), Byron Dafoe (1994), Mike Dunham (1995), Manny Legace (1996), Jean-Sebastien Giguere (1998), Martin Biron (1999), Jason LaBarbera (2005, ’07), Cory Schneider (2009), Matt Murray (2015), Casey DeSmith (2017), Calvin Pickard (2018), Connor Ingram (2020), Alex Lyon (2022) and Dustin Wolf (2023).
In operation since 1936 and celebrating its 90th-anniversary season this year, the American Hockey League continues to serve as the top development league for all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90 percent of all players competing in the NHL are AHL graduates, and through the years the American Hockey League has been home to more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
