SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League opens its 91st season tonight with a kickoff Opening Weekend presented by FloHockey with eight games on the Friday schedule.
All 32 clubs will play 72 games during the 2026-27 regular season, which runs until April 11. After that, 23 teams will compete in the postseason, with five rounds of playoffs leading up to the 2027 Calder Cup championship. The postseason field will include six of the eight teams in the North Division, five of the seven teams in the Atlantic and Central Divisions and seven of the 10 in the Pacific.
This season marks the AHL’s return to Hamilton, Ont., as Hamilton Hammers began play at the newly renovated TD Coliseum. The Hammers, the New York Islanders’ flagship affiliate, continue a tradition of AHL hockey in Hamilton that includes the Bulldogs (1996-2015) and Canucks (1992-94).
During the 2025-26 season. 87.0 percent All NHL players were American Hockey League alumni, including the 2025-26 Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov and Vezina Trophy winner Andrey Vasilevsky Tampa Bay Lightning; Norris Award Winner Zach Werensky Columbus Blue Jackets; Stanley Cup champion Logan Stankoven About the Carolina Hurricanes; and 100 point scorers David Pastrnak Boston Bruins and Martin Nekas From the Colorado Avalanche. last season a total of 901 AHL graduates played in the National Hockey League, incl 334: who skated alone in both leagues last year.
There were also 274 former first and second round NHL draft picks who played in the AHL last season, including standouts such as Consta Helenius, Michael Brandsegg-Nygaard, Carter Yakemchuk, Trevor Connelly, Matvey Grid, David Reinbacher, Bradley Nadeauand 2026 Calder Cup champions Easton Cowan and: Ben Dunford.
Of the 32 NHL head coaches in 2026-27, 22 were AHL bench bosses early in their careers, including the 2025-26 Jack Adams Award winner. John Cooper Tampa Bay Lightning. Manny Malhotra takes over the bench for the Vancouver Canucks after two seasons at the helm of their AHL affiliate in Abbotsford, where he won the 2025 Calder Cup championship, and Ryan Craig Is the new head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights after spending the last three years at the helm of the AHL’s Henderson Silver Knights. In addition, Trent Vogelhuber (Columbus), Mark Letestu (Vegas), Rocky Thompson (New York Islands), Greg Croney (St. Louis), Pascal Vincent (Seattle), Ryan Mugenel (Vancouver), Matt McIlvaine (Boston) and Calder Cup 2026 Jon Gruden (Toronto) are all new assistant coaches in the NHL after serving as bench bosses in the AHL in 2025-26.
The league has had 11 head coaching changes since the end of last season, with 10 first-time AHL head coaches leading the teams.
of Cleveland Nick ButlandIowa Stu BickelLovely Daniel JacobProvidence Trent Whitfield and in San Diego Dave Manson were assistant coaches in the AHL last season, while Henderson Joel Ward and Toronto Steve Sullivan were NHL assistants in 2025-26
of Colorado Jussi Ahokas Won a Memorial Championship with Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League last season. of Hamilton Jay McKee Brantford leads OHL to best record in 2025-26 And Ryan Papayoannou takes over for Abbotsford after leading Wheeling (ECHL) to the division title last season.
The only new head coach with previous AHL experience is Hartford Jay Leachwho won two division titles during his four seasons (2017-21) as head coach of the Providence Bruins. Leach spent the last five years as an NHL assistant in Boston and Seattle.
of Chicago Spiros AnastasSpringfield’s Steve Ott and Belleville’s Andrew CampbellAll in-season replacements with their respective teams in 2025-26 begin their first full seasons as AHL head coaches.
The Cleveland Monsters will host 2027 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Rectifi. The AHL All-Star Skills Competition will take place on Sunday, February 7followed by the AHL Hall of Fame induction and awards ceremony Monday, February 8 and the three-on-three, round-robin 2027 AHL All-Star Challenge that evening.
Since 1995, more than 94 percent of All-Star Classic participants have played in the National Hockey League, including: Yaroslav Askarov, Drake Batterson, Jordan Binnington, Michael Carcone, John Carlson, Brandt Clark, Thatcher Demko, Lucas Dostal, Dalibor Dvorsky, Rich Evans, Thomas Harley, Joel Hoffer, Jordan Kyrou, Jonathan Marchessault, Jakob Marström, JT Miller, Brandon Montour, Simon Nemec, William Nylander, Kyle Palmieri, Miko Rantanen, Isak Rosen, Matthew Savoie, Dylan Strom, Tyler Tofoley, Linus Ullmark, Dustin Wolf and: Matt Zuccarello.
AHLTV on FloHockey (flowhockey.tv:) features live streaming of every AHL game in high definition via desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices, as well as the FloSports app and connected devices such as Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.
FloHockey subscriptions are $39.99 USD ($49.99 CAD) per month, or save 67 percent on a year-round subscription. And FloHockey includes not only access to all regular season and Calder Cup Playoff contests for all 32 American Hockey League teams, but also more than 30,000 hockey contests on FloHockey, as well as streams and replays of all other live events on FloSports. FloHockey supports these events a A solid AHL content strategy which features award-winning editorial and video content throughout the year.
The AHL’s social media presence also continues to grow, with league streams on Instagram (teahl), Facebook (fb.com/theahl:), X (@TheAHL:), threads (@TheAHL:) and Bluesky (@theahl.com) remain excellent sources for AHL news, specials, behind-the-scenes insights and fan engagement. The AHL Communications Department also maintains a news feed with X (@AHLPR:)
The AHL’s digital properties are anchored on the league’s official website, theahl.com:which is fully compatible with desktop as well as mobile and tablet devices. Additionally, the official AHL mobile app is available for free iPhone: and: Android: devices.
The 2026-27 AHL Guide & Record Book will be available to view and download here theahl.com/mediaguide. The AHL rulebook can be found here theahl.com/rules.
In existence since 1936, the American Hockey League serves as the premier league for the development of players, coaches, managers, executives, broadcasters and personnel for all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League alumni, and more than 100 Hockey Hall of Fame inductees spent time in the AHL during their careers.