AHL Notebook: Looking back at top stories of 2025

As the American Hockey League moves through the first quarter of its 90th anniversary season, NHL.com has a biweekly notebook breaking down all the happenings around the league. Today features a look at some of the top events across the league in 2025.

Abbotsford wins the Calder Cup

As last January’s schedule got underway, Abbotsford (Vancouver Canucks) had a 14-15-1-1 record that left the team barely in the Pacific Division playoff field.

A players-only meeting followed a 6-2 road loss to Laval (Montreal Canadiens) on Jan. 4, 2025. Whatever was said in that meeting apparently worked. From there the team went 30-9-1-1 to finish the regular season second in the Pacific Division. In the best-of-3 first-round series against Tucson (Utah Mammoth), Abbotsford faced elimination before emerging from that series. The team then eliminated Coachella Valley (Seattle Kraken), Colorado (Colorado Avalanche), and Texas (Dallas Stars) to advance to the Calder Cup Final.

Abbotsford then ousted Charlotte (Florida Panthers) with a 3-2 win in Game 6 of the Calder Cup Final. Two of Abbotsford’s victories in the series came on the road. It was the first ever Calder Cup championship for a Vancouver affiliate.

Vancouver forwards Linus Karlsson, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Aatu Raty, and Max Sasson were all members of the Calder Cup championship team. In addition, goalie Arturs Silovs was named the most valuable player of the Calder Cup Playoffs. He finished the postseason with a 16-7 record along with a 2.01 goals-against average, .931 save percentage, and five shutouts. Vancouver traded him to the Pittsburgh Penguins on July 13, 2025 for defenseman Chase Stillman and a 2027 fourth-round pick.

Grand Rapids has a record-breaking start

Grand Rapids (Detroit Red Wings) went into the AHL holiday break this week with a 25-1-0-1 record and has a 14-game winning streak.

A 5-0 win against Cleveland (Columbus Blue Jackets) on Dec. 21, the team’s 27th game, made Grand Rapids the fastest team to reach 50 points in AHL history. The next-fastest teams to reach the 50-point mark, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pittsburgh Penguins) in 2005-06 and Providence (Boston Bruins) in 2007-08, each needed 30 games.

Goalie Sebastian Cossa is 14-1-0 with a 1.68 GAA (second in the AHL) and a .936 save percentage (also second in the AHL). Detroit selected Cossa in the first round (No. 15) of the 2021 NHL Draft. Forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, chosen in the first round (No. 15) of the 2024 NHL Draft by the Red Wings, has 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 22 games.

Grand Rapids has a .944 point percentage. The AHL record for point percentage is .775, which was set by Binghamton (New York Rangers) in 1992-93 when the AHL had an 80-game schedule. Grand Rapids is on pace for 136 points. The league record for points in a season is 124, which was also set by the 1992-93 Binghamton team.

Montreal Canadiens prospects find success

Laval, Montreal’s AHL affiliate, finished first overall in the 2024-25 regular season with a 48-19-3-2 record. Laval eliminated Cleveland and Rochester (Buffalo Sabres) to reach the Eastern Conference Finals before being eliminated by Charlotte.

Forwards Owen Beck and Oliver Kapanen were with Laval for the Calder Cup Playoffs as was defenseman Adam Engstrom; all three players have since graduated to the Canadiens. Forward prospects Sean Farrell, Jared Davidson, Filip Mesar, Joshua Roy, Luke Tuch, and Florian Xhekaj all took part in the playoff run along with defenseman David Reinbacher.

So did goalie Jacob Fowler, who turned pro late last season. Selected in the third round (No. 69) of the 2023 NHL Draft by the Canadiens, Fowler joined Laval following his standout season with Boston College and played eight playoff games. Fowler, 21, has since been promoted to the Canadiens following a strong start to this season in the AHL and got his first NHL shutout in a 4-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 20.

The Montreal organization’s AHL success has continued this season. Laval is tied for first in the North Division with a 17-10-0-1 record.

Hershey bids for a third consecutive Calder Cup championship

Abbotsford’s championship came after a bid by Hershey (Washington Capitals) for a third consecutive Calder Cup championship fell short.

Hershey had won the Calder Cup in 2023 and 2024, defeating Coachella Valley each season. That positioned Hershey to attempt to become the first team to win the Calder Cup in three consecutive seasons since Springfield did so between 1960-62.

Hershey finished the regular season with a 44-20-7-1 record but was eliminated by Charlotte in the Atlantic Division Final.

The AHL celebrates its 90th season

The 2025-26 season is the 90th in AHL history.

The league began play as the International-American Hockey League on Nov. 7, 1936. The eight-team league lost one team, Buffalo, only a month into the season. In 1938, the league adopted its current name and added Hershey. Hershey has since gone on to win the Calder Cup a record 13 times and is the league’s oldest franchise.

Today’s development-based model took on a much greater role in the 1960s and 1970s to meet the expanding NHL’s needs. While the league at one point fell to six teams by the 1976-77 season, it soon began to add members in the ensuing decades. In 2001, the AHL absorbed six teams from the now-defunct International Hockey League. In 2015, the league expanded to the West Coast in a move that enabled more NHL teams to set up more geographically convenient affiliations.

Each of the NHL’s 32 teams has an AHL affiliate, and the league stretches from California to Quebec.