Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
The AHL’s 91st season kicks off tonight with an eight-game schedule and plenty of changes.
An anniversary, a Calder Cup defense, a new old AHL home, roster changes, prospects and more prospects are all questions and storylines to explore this season.
Opening weekend is here as the long journey to the Calder Cup begins again. Here are some of those questions and stories ahead.
Can the Calder Cup stay in Canada for another year?
The Toronto Marlies’ bid toward that goal begins tonight when they visit the Rochester Americans. Their Calder Cup championship banner will travel to the rafters at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Saturday afternoon before their home opener.
Following the Abbotsford Canucks’ 2025 championship, the Marlies retained the trophy in Canada when they finished off the Chicago Wolves in five games in the Calder Cup final last June. Steve Sullivan takes over as head coach Jon Grudenwho was promoted to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Marlies return a significant number of players from their championship roster, including goalie Arthur Akhtyamov. The 24-year-old controlled Toronto’s crease early in the postseason and earned the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the Calder Cup playoff’s most valuable player. Also, backwards is forwards Vinnie Lettieri after his 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists) led all postseason scorers. Captain Logan Shaw Signed a one-year contract extension Thursday that will keep him with the Marlies through at least the 2027-28 season.
There is also youth. Protector Ben Dunfordranked 31st overall in 2024 and beyond Landon Sim they’re officially rookies, but they joined the Marlies during last spring’s championship season and have their names written on the Calder Cup.
The wolves are still hungry
Just three wins away from winning the Calder Trophy in 2025-26, Chicago will return one of the best rosters in the league.
With Carolina’s top prospects Bradley Nadeau, Justin Robidas and: Felix Unger Sorum Therefore, the Wolves will have a wealth of talent that has also been exposed to the demands of the Calder Cup playoffs. Take that unit, surround it with a deep base of forwards, a highly experienced blue line and solid players Cayden Prima in net, and the Wolves are more than capable of making another run at the Calder Cup. Their first test comes Saturday afternoon in Manitoba.
Youth movement
The AHL is about getting younger and adding even more top talent.
A new agreement between the National Hockey League and the Canadian Hockey League allowed 19-year-old first-round picks to be assigned to the AHL instead of returning to the junior varsity. The thinking is clear. get the professional experience these top prospects need and do it sooner.
That change means the NHL’s 2025 first-round class is well represented on the AHL’s opening rosters. The list includes Tucson’s Caleb Desnoyers (fourth overall), Milwaukee’s Brady Martin (fifth), of Rochester Radim Mrtka (ninth), of Abbotsford Braeden Cootes (15th), Springfield’s Justin Carbonneau (19th), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Bill Zonnon (22nd), Hershey’s Linden Lakovich (27th) and in Ontario Henry Bzhustevich (31st p.).
Here comes the 2024 harvest as well
Most of the NHL’s 2024 draft class is also turning pro.
Desnoyers won’t be the only top-10 pick on Tucson’s roster. Tij IginlaSon of a Hockey Hall of Famer Yarom Iginlafinished sixth at Utah Mammoth two years ago. He is fresh off a 41-goal season with the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League.
The New Jersey Devils have drafted a quarterback Anton Silaev 10th overall in 2024, and he’ll develop with the Utica Comets to begin with. The 20-year-old player has already spent three seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League. Taken 13th by the Philadelphia Flyers, forward Jet Luchanko is with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Terik Paraschak (17th – Hershey), Sasha Boisvert (18th – Rockford), Cole Eiserman (20th – Hamilton), Cole Beaudoin (24th – Hartford), Liam Greentree (26th – Hartford), Marek Vanaker (27th – Rockford), Emile Heming (29th – Texas), and Sam O’Reilly (32nd – Syracuse) completed an impressive collection of forwards. And Stian Solberg (23rd), who played 71 games on San Diego’s blue line last season, is back for more time with the Seagulls.
The list is moving
The AHL’s new collective bargaining agreement with the NHL has made adjustments to the league’s development rules. Twelve of the team’s 18 skaters must have played 260 or fewer professional games at the NHL, AHL and elite European league levels. A team can dress up to six players (age 25 or older by July 1) over the 260-game threshold. Goalkeepers do not count towards the limit.
Back to Steeltown
The AHL returns to Hamilton, Ont., for the first time since 2015. The Hammers take over the new AHL affiliate of the New York Islanders and will play in the completely renovated TD Coliseum. They will test their provincial rivals early. A visit to Belleville on Friday is followed by Toronto’s home opener on Saturday. The Hammers debut at home on Friday, October 9 against the Marlies.
Amends Brown in Providence
Providence Bruins fans will be greeted by a drastically revamped roster tonight against Utica for the team’s season opener.
Providence’s 54-16-2-0 record led the AHL last season, but the team fell to the Springfield Thunderbirds in the division semifinals. Then the changes hit. MVP goaltender Michael DiPietro and an All-Star quarterback Frederic Brune earned jobs with the Boston Bruins. Ryan MugenelThe Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award winner as the AHL’s most outstanding head coach last season is with the Vancouver Canucks in his first NHL role as an assistant coach. Captain Patrick Brown moved forward as the leading attackers Matej Bluemel, Fabian Leiseland: George Merkulov.
Trent Whitfield Mugenel takes over. Other changes include the upcoming forwards Wyatt Bongiovanni, Brendan Gauns, Brian Halonen, Cross Hanasand: Ivan Ivanalong with defenders Toby Bisson, Max Genet, Jordan Harris and: Henry Jokiharju.
Providence has been a perennial contender for years. Whitfield captained the P-Bruins as a player and went on to serve 10 seasons as an assistant coach at Providence. He knows the team’s high standards as well as anyone.
Changing seats
Sullivan and Whitfield are not the only new head coaches this season.
Jussi Ahokas (Colorado), Stu Bickel (Iowa), Nick Butland (Cleveland), Daniel Jacob (Laval), Jay Leach (Hartford), Dave Manson (San Diego), Jay McKee (Hamilton), Ryan Papayoannou (Abbotsford) and Joel Ward (Henderson Silver Knights) all have new head coaching positions.
With Gruden and Mugenel as assistants, Ryan Craig (Vegas) and: Manny Malhotra (Vancouver) are first-time NHL head coaches. Among the 2025-26 AHL head coaches: Greg Croney (St. Louis), Mark Letestu (Vegas), Matt McIlvaine (Boston), Rocky Thompson (NY Islanders), Pascal Vincent (Seattle) and Trent Vogelhuber (Columbus Blue Jackets) are now NHL assistant coaches.
A look into the past
November 7 will be busy day and night around AHL. Historical too.
All 32 teams will play on the day to commemorate the league’s 90th anniversary. 1936 It was on November 7 that the league, then known as the International-American Hockey League, played its first games.
And to the future
The AHL All-Star Classic always features some of the best young talent in the league. Fifteen participants in last season’s event hosted by Rockford have graduated to NHL jobs. Cleveland will host 2027 AHL All-Star Classic presented by Rectifi February 7-8.
With more than two decades in the American Hockey League, TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was awarded the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the league in 2015-16.
